Life Within Death
by Sierra.BN312
Summary: No longer home, but somewhere else. Naruto finds a place filled with multitudes of beings he once thought to be the ruler of the Underworld, but his first sight was but a small child out in this cold, and harsh world. What else could he do, but take her in?
1. Prologue: Alone

_**Hello, everyone! I'm back with a brand new story, and this category has pushed me away since so many fics aren't really that interesting, they're poorly written, and so few actually make them real crossovers, or what I consider them real crossover. So for this one, all I ask is that you keep an open mind with this one. That is all that I ask, so enjoy :)**_

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Prologue: Alone

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He woke up all of a sudden in the dead of night. His head hurt like hell, and he groaned as he slowly got up, the sky was bright with stars and the moon. He looked around to get a better view of his surroundings, as his throat was dry and his stomach was growling like no tomorrow. This sucked...like bad...

"Ok, where the hell am I? I know that I'm not dead, and that's a fact, so what gives? Am I home?" He was hoping to get a response from his friends inside his gut, but instead he got zippo...which sucked. He needed to find out why, but first came the necessities.

The boy named Naruto started to gather up the natural energy around him and his eyes changed that of a cross shaped pupil with gold colored eyes. Though when he did, he noticed that it wasn't as potent as it usually was. Rather it was thinner than usual, odd...

Though now that he finally got his Senjutsu up even though it took a little longer than usual, he was able to make out several life signatures, human ones at that, though they felt rather weaker than usual, about a kilometer behind him, "Alrighty then, now I know where to go get something to eat...well...hopefully..."

As Naruto was about to make his way to where the people where. He decided to try and see if he could get an aerial view of where he was, maybe a good picture of what country he was in. Going against his better judgement more so often than usual, so he decided to just say fuck it all and went into his Six Paths Mode and float for a bit to get a better view of where he was heading towards.

He was actually in awe of what he saw, "Woooaaahhh...", a massive compound that was practically two to three times the size of the Leaf Village. It was surrounded by a large wall for whatever reason illuminated with several small lights throughout the compound as it had a large flat plateau up above in the center with large towers and spires within an inner compound, "Oh, shit. Someone probably saw me." This just donned in him as odds are, someone was up in those towers keeping watch over the place, at least that's what he would do if this was a military installation.

Naruto flew down to the ground and deactivated his Six Paths Mode, and tried his luck at just running towards the town he saw at the edge of the place.

Naruto started to slow down a bit not wanting to bring too much attention to himself, so he walked his way towards several building hoping to find a ramen stand that was still open late, judging by the many windows and doors closed and blacked out houses. As he kept walking he saw a young petite girl wearing a yellow kimono without any sandals or shoes running past him, "Woah! Hey, warning next time?!" Naruto shouted out towards the girl, but she didn't acknowledge him since she just kept running on to where ever. "Ehh, whatever. Stupid girl..."

Now, Naruto sometimes didn't know better, but he sure as hell does sometimes and was prepared for many situations...except for the one...he would be in this for a long time.

As he continued walking in the direction the girl had come from, he heard a light snoozing down to his left on the ground, and what he saw and was imagining right now, made him speechless.

He saw a tiny little baby wrapped up to the brim in sheets and just snoozing away, but eventually that cute little snoozing started to turn into whimpering. Naruto scooped the baby up and tried to rock it as he saw the moms back in the village would do when their own babies where about to cry. Luckily he was able to get the baby to calm down a bit, though now he was wondering about the babies family. "Hey little guy, where's you're family?"

As Naruto started to coddle the baby a bit, he saw that there was an etching in the sheets, "Your name's Rukia. Oh, little girl then...my bad there, hehe..."

As he started to chuckle a bit to himself, it seemed that the baby girl, who he now knew was named Rukia started to wake up. She opened her eyes and simply stared at him with small amount of happiness going off of the little smile she gave him.

Naruto looked into those bright purple eyes and saw such cuteness in them. "Aaaaawwwww...you're sooooo cuuuuuute..." He was making a little puppy dog face in sadness at the fact that this little baby was left out in the cold. Who the hell would do something so cruel?!

Eventually baby Rukia tried to grab at the left side of his face, though he knew what she was trying to grasp at. His newly minted Rinnegan. He had obtained it during his fight against Sasuke in their continuation of their first fight 4 years ago at the Valley of the End. He guessed that Super Gramps Sage had given him some sort of edge against Sasuke once they sealed Kaguya away, and as they began their fight he suddenly felt like he was siphoning away Sasuke's Yin Chakra, and now he had his eyes to boot...but afterwards, he couldn't remember for some reason...he'd figure it out later.

Naruto decided to slip his head band over his left eye like Kakashi-sensei would, and baby Rukia stopped trying to fiddle with his left eye. But that didn't stop her from trying to rub his whisker marks on his cheeks. He smiled at her and let baby Rukia play with his cheeks to her heart's content. "Well, I guess I can look after you for a while." Naruto looked around and decided to try and find a place to crash for the night and see what they could grab to eat.

No ramen stands, damn well that sucks...but then again he kinda doubted that she'd be able to eat and appreciate the glory of ramen. He'd show her one day when she was old enough to understand.

He finally found what looked like a hotel of sorts with the lights still on, a candle in the window by the looks of it, and decided to see if he could bullshit his way into a free night here.

And judging from the way the place looked, even the surrounding buildings, "This whole town is a dump, who'd be able to live in these conditions? Even _I_ had better places to go to back home at the Leaf Village." It seemed that odds are the owner would probably be desperate for someone to stay in here, and hopefully they were a bleeding heart as an added bonus.

Naruto opened up the door slowly and stepped inside, where he saw to his left was a desk clerk or from he could guess was the clerk of the hotel. He saw that it was a woman probably in her mid thirties who was taking care of a few papers on the desk. Yeah, that crap sucked, and he had a feeling that he'd be doing a lot of it when he became Hokage.

He cleared his throat to grab the clerks attention, "Umm, excuse me miss."

The clerk was caught off guard by Naruto's voice going off of her jumping a bit from the desk with her papers flying around from the man made burst of wind, "Gyah! Oh, sorry sir. I don't get many people around 3 AM in the morning." She started to collect the scattered papers from behind her desk and got them into a pile, "So, can I get you a room for you..." then she glanced at baby Rukia whom Naruto was holding in his arms close to him, "...and your, uh daughter there?"

Naruto looked down towards baby Rukia and saw that she was trying to play with his whisker marks smiling a bit and cooing, "Y-yeah, my daughter." He was about to rebuke and say that she wasn't his daughter, but he wasn't sure if he should say that he just found her in the street, no telling what would happen to her.

He was able to sweet talk the clerk into letting them sleep in a room for the night for free since he didn't know if his money would even be of any worth here, and as an added bonus the woman was nice enough to give them some food for him and Rukia to eat for the night. Thank whatever deity was out there for making bleeding hearts.

He wasn't full at all but it gave him something for the night, and now he was feeding Rukia with a bottle at the moment on their bed. She was pretty wide awake at the moment despite it being really late in the night.

"I get the feeling you're gonna be a night owl in the future." Naruto took the bottle out of Rukia's mouth to give her some time to breath since she just gulped down half the thing in just a minute, she was hungry just as much as he was. Then again, he did go two whole days without food or water and fought almost nonstop, so he was probably feeling like hell right now.

But she was a baby, and only a couple of months old from the way she looked. Most newborns couldn't really smile or much less open their eyes so early in their lives. "Alright so, I'm currently taking care of a baby after pretty much going up against a god...never thought I'd be doing something like this so early in my life." Rukia had finally gulped down the last of the bottle and started getting heavy eyes, Naruto knew that she had to burp since they couldn't really do it so early in their lives, they had to have help so he placed her up to his shoulder and started to pat her on the back to help her get a few burps out of her system.

"I know that I just found you, and you're already kinda attached to me. And I know that I'm not your dad...but, I can be whatever you want me to be." Still no burp from Rukia. "I mean, I could be your brother...your cousin...uncle...or like that woman said, your dad."

That's when he got a burp from Rukia. "Oh, well I guess that's the answer then." Even though he wasn't too big on this so soon, he wasn't going to abandon this baby girl.

No way in hell.

Tomorrow morning he'd try to see where he was, and try to find a better place to live in, there was no way he could raise, or at least try to raise a baby girl in a place that looked this run down.

He stopped patting Rukia and looked at her to see that she was already back to sleep. "She's sooooo cuuuute like this..." He whispers to himself. He got the bed situated for the two of them as he took a single pillow for himself and left two others for Rukia to have as walls of protection in case he rolled over on her or she rolled over the side of the bed. Soon, the two of them fell to sleep into the night. Though, he couldn't shake this feeling, that something dark would be on the horizon...

The morning following, Naruto got up and saw that Rukia was still asleep, so he decided to see what info he could get for wherever he was at. He gently lifted Rukia up without waking her, knowing that she'd cry like no tomorrow if she did, and walked back towards where the desk clerk was at last night and saw that she had fallen asleep on the desk with a bit of drool coming out of her mouth. "Uhmm, excuse me. Miss?"

The woman snorted a bit in surprise that she had fallen asleep at her desk, "Oh, yes, yes. Sorry about that. How can help you, young man?"

"Yeah, umm, where exactly am I? Or where is this place? Is it somewhere in the Land of Fire? Or the Land of Lightning?" Naruto looked at the woman and saw that she was giving him a look that was asking him, 'Where the hell are those places? What have you been smoking? Do you have two heads? Is the sky pink instead with flying pigs? Have you come from a place where you burp you fart and vice-versa?'

Yeah...not a very good sign.

"I've never heard of those places before, I came from Kyoto in Japan before I died in 1765. We're in the Soul Society and this is the 78th district, Hanging Dog in the Rukongai." Now Naruto knew where he was, and the fact that the woman said she 'died', made him rather skeptical and a little scared at the same time.

He sure as hell knew that he wasn't dead, that was for damn sure! Fuck death!

So, he decided to get to the bottom of this little lack of info problem. "Oh, umm sorry I kinda recently died too, so I don't really know where I came to." He played along with whatever this woman was acting with, maybe he'd get some straight answers.

He listened to the woman's explanations about the Soul Society, the Rukon District, and the way they were structured. When people die in the World of the Living as it was called, their souls came to the Soul Society with the help of a 'Shinigami' to ferry them over. And that they all lived in the Sereitei in the middle of the Soul Society, the massive compound that Naruto had seen when he first got here.

He only knew of one Shinigami, and he sure as hell knew that he didn't look human since he saw the memory that his mother had shown him, but whatever.

After thanking the woman again for letting them stay the night and grab some food, she was also nice enough to give him a baby back strap that she used to have for her own children to carry Rukia wherever he went so he had his arms for use. Naruto decided to try and make his way to this Sereitei and see if he could maybe sneak a peek into the place. See what gave these so called Shinigami the power, and right to do what they pleased.

Apparently a vast majority of the Shinigami looked down upon people in the Rukon District, and considered them trash and treated them like dirt. They only were concerned with themselves and their jobs. Well if this Soul Society was supposed to be Heaven, then why the hell weren't the Shinigami trying to make it just that?

The way these people were living were pathetic, if anything from what he remembered from what Pervy Sage had taught him on their three year training trip, they were still stuck at least in times before the Era of Warring States when only the Nobles lived in peace and comfort, while the commoners lived in poverty and strife.

Rich are getting richer, while the poor just keep getting poorer. "This is wrong..." It was all he said about the system. Back home the Nobles, or at least the ones he knew, particularly the Hyugas actually cared about the commoners and about their future somewhat. Although it was mostly towards the Leaf Village, and not as much towards the outside towns within the Land of Fire.

Naruto arrived out into an open field and saw the majestic view of the Sereitei, despite having upstarts in the place, it was a beautiful sight to see. He saw that another town, prolly a better one at that since he saw that the town was rather lively. He heard Rukia starting to wake up a bit and felt that she was getting her hands out to move around a bit.

It must seriously suck to have no movement at all in those blankets.

"Well, I think this looks like a nice place to settle down for a while." Naruto turned to Rukia nestled up on his back. "What do you think?" She cooed a bit when he talked to her, she liked it from what he could tell. "Yeah, you're right. It's nice, although I think we should probably keep our distance from the Shinigami around the place. Don't want any suspicion right now." Rukia started playing with his hair at the back of his head for a bit as he made his way into the new town.

It definitely was a huge step up from Hanging Dog that was for sure. He walked around into the marketplace from the looks of it as merchants were getting everything set since it was still the morning.

Hanging Dog had rats scurrying about in the streets and garbage was piled up. Here, people's porches were swept up, cats and dogs hanging around the windows looking well groomed. The smell was decent. Now he just needed to find a place to make for the two of them with his Wood Style, and out of sight since he doubted these people were able to do Ninjutsu going by what that woman told him about where she came from.

"Alright, let's see if we can find a nice little place out of sight to live in." Naruto walked around the place and saw kids playing ball with one another, women washing clothes, and men fixing up furniture and houses. "Just like home..."

A smile graced Naruto's face and liked what he saw, but then he started to sniff the air a bit and started selling something bad, "What the hell is that smell?" And things went from bad to worse as Rukia started to cry a bit, he took Rukia off of the back strap and tried to calm her down a bit, "Whoa, whoa, hey, hey it's alright. Uhh...look at my..."

That's when he got a good whiff of the air, and knew the source of said smell. "Oh, shit..."

Yup, she did just that. Greeeeaaattttt...

"Oh...you have crappy diaper...fantastic..." Naruto deadpanned. He looked around to see if he could find someplace to take care of her business. He could make use of some of the spare clothes that he had sealed away in one of his scrolls.

He found a nice hill back away from prying eyes and saw that this was actually the perfect place to make a house. "Ok, watch this little trick Rukia."

Naruto went through the handsigns in quick secession: Snake ➡ Rat ➡ Ox ➡ Ram ➡ Snake. "Wood Style: Four Pillar House Jutsu."

A large two story house spouted from the ground all of a sudden, with a little Rukia squealing in excitement, despite having a dirty diaper. "Yeah, kinda figured you'd like that."

Naruto slid the door open and stepped inside to see that the house was in good condition and he got some of his stuff unpacked that he could care less for at the time.

He took Rukia off of his back and prepared for probably the worst self given D-Rank mission of all time: Changing a Diaper.

Naruto unsealed one of his spare clothes sets and ripped one of his undershirts to get together. He unsealed some gauze from his medkit to wipe her and wrap his undershirt for a makeshift diaper.

"There. All better!" He had large smile on his face at his somewhat success, Rukia grabbed his cheeks and started squeezing them a bit for fun, she squealed in happiness, _'Suck it women! I rock at this shit!'_

"Ok, let's go see if we can't go use some of this gold in Gama-chan, maybe they would take gold here at least since I saw some back in the marketplace." They needed beds and pillows for the night, food could be gathered at another market with Shadow Clones.

Naruto took Rukia and placed her back into his strap and they left their new house. He ran back to the marketplace to see if he could maybe use his gold in some way, he saw a furniture merchant and approached the man, "Excuse me buddy, is there any chance you're able to take this kind of gold?"

The merchant looked at the gold that Naruto had pulled out of his Gama-Chan and decided to give it a look over real quick, and then gave him a thumbs up, "Hey gold is gold. I take what I can get, how much do you have?"

Naruto took out a bit more out of Gama-chan and saw that the merchant had stars in his eyes. "Will this be enough for whatever I want?" He gambled. A lot. More so than Granny Tsunade or Pervy Sage would, and here his mom told him not to gamble. Hell, it made him a lot of money every now and then, more so than when he got paid after missions.

"Hell kid, you could probably buy out the whole lot from most of the other merchants with all that gold! Take what you want!" He motioned to the various furniture's that he had behind him in his shop. Naruto stepped through the open doorway and looked at the selection of things that he had. There were some that had some good craftsmanship and others were rather ordinary, so not wanting to spend too much, he simply picked out a bed and looked for a crib for Rukia. And after grabbing those things, he picked out a table, some chairs and some other necessities for the two of them.

Some of the women thought that he was rather attractive going by the blushes he saw on their faces, along with hearing the words, 'cute, handsome, hot, and sexy baby daddy', whatever that meant...

Now he knew why Sasuke _really_ left the village...fangirls and stalkers, the worst enemy imaginable.

He finally got what he wanted and asked the merchant if he could come back for his beds later, so that he could go get some food, and make some Shadow Clones in disguise to buy some other things.

He had spent so much time today feeding Rukia when she was hungry and let her play with his hair. She would try to bite it and he felt the drool on his head, forcing him to wipe it off, least to say, he had a good day so far.

He had been out all day and nightfall soon fell, he was able to grab some food that would last him and Rukia a few months after disguising his Shadow Clones, he got everything situated for his time here.

"Well, I think that just about covers everything." Naruto looked around the small house to see that things were where he had his Shadow Clones placed in the right place.

He heard took Rukia off of his back and took out some clothes for her that he bought for her back in one of the marketplaces. It was a purple little mini-kimono made for just about everything and was just her size. "Man, I got lucky finding this for you, gotta be a lot more comfy for ya I'm than those old sheets."

"Goo..." Rukia cooed at Naruto wanting to play with his whiskers again, one last time before she dozed off. She started to yawn and her eyes became heavy, hinting to Naruto that it was time for her to head to bed. "Alrighty then, guess you gotta hit the hay..."

 _'...while I see if I can scope out that Sereitei...'_

"I know that you can't really understand me, but I like to pretend that you do though, it helps me out a bit since I can't really talk to someone else right now." Naruto walked over to her room and decided to pull out his favorite and his dad's favorite book: The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja.

Jiraiya's first book.

It didn't sell well back home when it first released, but here, it could get some major money. Even those smut books of his and he had all ten of the books:

Icha Icha Paradise

Icha Icha Violence

Icha Icha Tactics

Icha Icha Strap

Icha Icha Pooltime

Icha Icha Maelstrom (The one that he unknowingly wrote)

Icha Icha Emotion

Icha Icha Dynamic

Ero Ero Paradigm

Ero Ero Install

He never read them of course, he only had them for sentimental value overall. Maybe he could build a Ramen stand somewhere in town to further support himself and Rukia. Well thoughts for another time.

He sat Rukia down into her crib and pulled her covers over her body leaving her heavy eyes staring at him.

"This was book was written by my Godfather, and it became not only my dad's favorite books, but also mine. And maybe someday, it'll be your favorite too."

"Bwuah." Rukia lifted her little hand up to try and grasp Naruto's. He put his hand down to let her hold onto one of his fingers with her tiny hands, it started to comfort her, and help her go to sleep. "Alright let me start at the beginning..."

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-One Hour Later-

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"...I will find a way to break this cycle of hatred...no matter what..." Naruto looked down to see that Rukia had fallen asleep and now was snoozing away. He lifted his finger out of her grasp and let it silently drop to the crib, and shut the door to her room, blowing out the candle, and let sleep in peace. "Goodnight, Rukia Uzumaki."

It had a nice ring to it.

Naruto now made a Shadow Clone to keep an eye on the place, after all...he still needed to see these Shinigami for himself.

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 _ **Well, now I was kinda stumped on how to write this out, but I was able to get some other things thought out, but I wanted to save those ideas for future chapters.**_

 _ **Now, Naruto has landed in the Soul Society. How? That will be explained in the future. Will he get a Zanpakuto? No. That has been overused the fuck out of, and I do not like it, and it serves no purpose in my story. Is he dead? No, he's not dead, don't worry about that.**_

 _ **Now, why did Naruto decide to take care of Baby Rukia? Well, he himself practically grew up on the streets and had to endure a very long amount of time without any parental love and guidance, he saw a bit of himself in Rukia. Plus, he likes cute things, and he just couldn't help himself but pick her up and hug her. No Naruto is no a lolicon, he just likes cute things.**_

 _ **Anyway, Naruto has landed about 150 years before the main Bleach storyline begins, so he'll interact with some people before hand, who they are, I really can't say, but I hope that I can do them justice. Anyways, keep an open mind with this story, please. That is all that I ask. Anyways, please continue to fav, follow, read, and review (No Flames please, as they will be deleted).**_


	2. Chapter 1: The Court of Pure Souls

Chapter 1: The Court of "Pure Souls"...What A Joke...

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-Naruto-

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Naruto had made a Shadow Clone to keep an eye on the house and watch over Rukia as she slept, he would do it himself, but these so called 'Shinigami' needed to be investigated and he needed to know what they were capable of exactly.

He slipped into a nearby town and grabbed a mask that he saw earlier today when he was browsing the vendor's wares. A white fox mask similar to one that an ANBU Black Ops Shinobi would wear while on missions, so that would keep his face a secret, but he really needed to keep his hair out of sight. He highly doubted that someone had hair as bright as his around here.

He found a black haired wig in a garbage can, well beggars can't be choosers and he had at least a way to disguise himself. He used Transformation Jutsu to go into his ANBU gear, no guarantee that he'd be able to maintain his change in form if he got into a fight so the mask and wig still kept his identity secret. He'd make a real one when he had the time, he would probably make numerous sneak ins into this place. "Alright, let's take these eyes for a test drive. And see what these Shinigami got."

He flipped up his headband and placed the fox mask and wig on his face and head. He channeled chakra to his eyes and both turned into their activated forms.

"Whoa. They've got a massive dome barrier around the whole compound." Naruto saw that the entirety of the Sereitei was surrounded by a large blue cover from the walls. "Is it for detection? Or for protection?" Naruto looked down as he saw that the barrier wasn't a dome, but rather a sphere instead, "...damn...these Shinigami don't fuck around with security...and tourism probably isn't high on one of their things..."

Naruto gazed a bit around and also saw a massive gate, along with a man that was about three stories tall sleeping and guarding it and he had two very large axes with him. Nowhere near Gamabunta size, but he was still very big.

Front door was out of the question. Unless he was asking for trouble.

So he needed to find a different way inside. "Maybe I can try my luck with the wall, if it isn't an actual barrier. But I could use my Goudodama to open a way in a drop a Flying Raijin marker to teleport back in here the next time I need to sneak in, if I need to."

Naruto slipped a ways over towards the wall and took a look around to make sure no one saw him. He decided to try and walk up the wall, thankfully he did and ran up the wall in a short amount of time, but as he hit the very top he found that he was now walking on the air, which confused him a bit.

Until he actually thought about it, "So it's not a detection barrier, rather a protection one instead." He tapped his foot a couple of times and then preceded to jump up and down a bit to gauge the strength of it, "Glad it can take my weight, otherwise I'd call this a real shitty job on the barrier. Let's see...best insertion point..." Naruto looked around to guess the place, "...alright, it may be best to get into the center of the Seireitei since I can make a couple of Shadow Clones to spread out and check things out really quickly."

Naruto ran towards the top of the barrier and looked down to see where he needed to land, if anything either the tall white spire, or the large arch where a giant halberd in front of it tied up with large ropes.

If he did things right: He'd land perfectly on either of the things without a problem from anyone or anything.

If he fucked up: Then he'd crash into an open window on the spire, or he'd get cut in half by the halberd...and it would be very unpleasant for his manhood...he shuddered at the thought, but he got straight to business.

"Alright time to get down to business. Gotta be quick about this and avoid getting seen." Naruto activated his Six Paths Mode and used the Goudodama floating behind him to create a hole big enough to jump into, now he gambled. The window or his nether regions, "Fuck it, the arch."

Naruto jumped and aimed towards landing on the arch as fast as he could and deactivated his Six Paths Mode as he landed on the edge. "Well, glad to see my manhood is intact." He jumped down to the ground and landed without so much as a sound, and he took a look around the place to try and guess the purpose of the big ass weapon.

He looked back and forth between it and the arch that he was on and deduced that this was an execution ground, given the wide open space as the arch looked like a guillotine that was half assed and they needed something to say 'You're fucked buddy'.

"Ok, I'm in a giant ass military compound with so called 'Shinigami', and they clearly didn't get an alert that I broke in as I am currently not surrounded by the embodiments of death...their security sucks. Unless they got some silent alarm, I should be good for the time being."

Naruto took a moment to look out to the Seireitei, as it was a sight to behold in the night, and probably even better in the day. "This definitely rivals the Hokage Monument's view alright, shame they don't have any city lights to give it a more lively vibe."

Naruto caught site of a few lights down below moving inna straight line, more than likely a patrol. The perfect opportunity to check these Shinigami out up close.

Naruto made a Shadow Clone, and left him with orders, "Check out these buildings and disperse when you think you got enough info."

"Right boss." The clone saluted and leapt off to the towers.

Naruto made a bee line for the lights downwards. He walked down the side of the plateau and saw that there was also a hidden door boarded up with wooden planks, "A safe house?" He made another clone to investigate this place as well.

Naruto continued on to where he was gong originally, and landed on a nearby roof and hid himself with a Transparency Jutsu, and he got a good look at the 'Shinigami'. They looked just like ordinary people, but they wore a black Shihakusho and a white undergarment underneath from what he could tell, and they carried a katana on them tied to their obi sash.

These were the so called 'Shinigami'? What a joke...they'd probably shit their pants if the met the real Shinigami. But what they could do was the real question. He overheard them talking about something, so he got close over on a nearby rooftop and was able to hear them better.

"I hear Central 46 is trying to block Captain Hikifune's promotion for some reason, but that's all I'm hearing right now about the subject."

"Really? They're in an uproar about a promotion? That doesn't make any sense, but then again those guys in Central 46 are all a bunch of jackasses to begin with, so they can talk all the crap they want. I could give a shit less about it. Let's just head back to their compound and stand guard before they realize we ditched half an hour of bitch duty for a few drinks."

Naruto thought about that for a second, so they did have an actual military structure among the Shinigami. That would explain why they don't do too much about the Rukongai. And apparently Central 46 was their main government branch but they were trying to block a captain's promotion? That raised more questions if anything, unless she did something that clearly did not settle well with the government, he needed to get inside. They would have to have a library of the Soul Society's history and at least dossier's and files on the military that they've got.

Naruto followed the two Shinigami on the roof tips and made sure to move at high speeds to make sure nobody saw him. The two Shinigami finally came to the Central 46 compound entrance and saw that it was a very simple design. A small circular building with a large red door for an entrance, and was surrounded by a man made pond that was at least 20 feet in diameter and looked pretty deep. It had a narrow bridge leading to it, and the main courtyard was walled up all the way at least 30 feet high and only had a single door to get in out.

"Not to bad of an entrance, but they gotta have a second door in emergencies, going through the front would more than likely raise an alarm." Naruto looked all over the area for that second door, so far no luck, but then it donned on him.

The pond.

It would be such a ridiculous and stupid place to put a back up door, but it made some sense in his head. You'd have to be a complete dumbass to design a high security compound like this and only put one main entrance, but not secret back door in case of emergencies. Though there would more than likely be an entrance that comes back to this place in the event an evacuation was needed and the front door was a no go, but he doubted he had the time to look for it all over the Seireitei.

"Alright Central 46, let's see how top of the line your security is..."

Naruto crept into the main courtyard adjacent to the main door and the guards who were still talking to one another. He stepped down on top of the water trying not to make waves that would give him away to the guards, he looked around underwater with his Sharingan eye and was looking hard, as this pond was about another 20 feet deep.

"Ah ha. Here we are." He spotted the door's outline and saw that there was a latch on it. More than likely the path would curve and lead to an air pocket, but one problem...he needed air. And there was no telling how long the swim would be, unless he used, "Maybe I can use Isobu's chakra to breath underwater? I still got some of it when he gave it to me."

Naruto concentrated and went into the Tailed Beast Chakra reserves, he sensed out Isobu's and started channeling throughout his body, and he felt through out his system he was being flooded with the chakra. After feeling it, he stopped channeling the chakra to his feet and plummeted into the water.

He stayed in the water to get a feel for breathing, and it was actually pretty easy. "This is so cool! Whoa! I can talk underwater too? That is awesome!"

He swam down to the latch and undid it to get inside, and he began to swim for a good five minutes at least, until he saw a small light at the end, "So it does come to an air pocket. Maybe they have other exits like this down here, and they need to drain it when they have emergencies?" He finally got to an opening and climbed out of the water, despite it being cold, he didn't feel any chills nor did he shiver, must be another effect of Isobu's chakra coursing through his system.

He cut off the chakra flow and saw that there was a door that was unlocked for some reason. Huh, that was weird, were these people so arrogant that they didn't think anyone could sneak into this place? He wondered how his Shadow Clones were doing...

* * *

-The Safe House Shadow Clone-

* * *

The NaruClone took down some of the wooden planks that boarded up the entrance and stepped inside the place to check it out. He saw that there were two tatami mats along with an array of weaponry stacked and propped up on the walls. "Guess it's a training room, but this isn't enough space to get any real training in."

He looked around and saw that one of tiles looked out of place as there was a flower on it, "What do we have here?" He lifted the tile up and saw that there was a ladder that led down, very deep down. The NaruClone dropped a Flying Raijin Kunai down the way to teleport down to where the ladder lead to, and was actually impressed by what he saw.

It was a massive cavern that had several landscaped structures, showing that it was clearly man made, but he also saw that there was a nice little hot spring nearby, "This is actually a pretty nice place." Naruto kept walking around the place getting a look here and there around it. So far he had seen nothing special even with his Rinnegan and his Sharingan, so he decided to disperse and let the boss know about it.

* * *

-The Tower Cluster NaruClone-

* * *

He had been leaping around the buildings high up to avoid being seen, so far nothing had really caught his attention.

That was until he saw a few lights coming from a room above a tower that had a large kanji for one painted on it, he began to sense some very strong people in it, so this had warranted some investigation.

He leapt quietly over to the room and was able to peek into it through the open wall design, he made sure to stay out of sight with a Transparency Jutsu so no one would notice him.

He saw that there was an elderly man sitting in a chair with a wooden cane in front of him. He had a very long white beard and long eyebrows, along with two very prominent scars on his forehead that made an 'X' above his right eye. He also had a white haori draped over his shoulders that made him seem bigger than what he looked like, but Naruto could see that this was all just a ruse, the old and frail look would make his opponents go easy on him, but instead the man was quite the fighter.

That was what he got from looking at him, and from using a bit of Senjutsu, he saw that he was the strongest out of everyone in the room, he was definitely above Kage-level, maybe around a combo of Hashirama and Madara, perhaps more so...either way, the NaruClone believed that he was the only one in the Soul Society that could actually give him a real fight.

He looked towards the other people dressed in the same fashion but they had their own personal style. On the row to the left, there five people standing, while there were five more to the right.

The first woman on the left was quite the looker, as the image of a cat came to his mind. She was a slender, dark-skinned woman, a couple of inches shorter than him with golden colored eyes, and had short purple hair cut above her neck. She wore a different styled Shihakusho underneath a long sleeved haori, and had a black ribbon tied around her neck. She was definitely hot, but some of the women back home looked even better. Wait...why the hell was he thinking about this shit? He was supposed to be gathering info for the boss, he shook his head at these thoughts and looked to the woman down from her.

She was slender, looked very healthy, had blue eyes and black hair. Instead of having a normal sash, she had an obi instead. Her hair was long and was tied up in a ponytail down the front of her body. She gave off a kind & gentle, yet firm & strict sort of aura, but he looked closer at her hands...they were the same as Granny Tsunade's...she had the healing touch, and the mark of an expert swordswoman with years of experience. She also carried her sword over her shoulder unlike the others, and was slung over with a string instead. He got an odd feeling from her...

He looked down to the elderly man next to her. He was tall and had slate gray eyes, a gray mustache and long gray hair. He also had a white scarf wrapped around his neck and he looked like he was about to kick the bucket. But he still had a long way to go before he truly did. He was reminded of Old Man Sarutobi, a man of both wisdom and experience, but age had caught up to him, and while he was strong he was no longer in his prime.

Next to him the other guy seemed pretty laid back and carefree like himself, going by his attire. He was tall, light-skinned and had high cheekbones, grey eyes and long wavy brown hair. His hair was tied in a long ponytail and underneath the straw hat and had two pinwheels in it. He guessed he was a guy that liked back and have a drink, rather than do some serious work, but he digressed.

The woman next to him was certainly well-endowed like a certain drinking & gambling Hokage, and had a slender body. Her hair was long and purple with some markings below her eyes and black lipstick. She was rather attractive in his eyes, though once again he found himself questioning why he was thinking this...she wore the standard uniform underneath a long-sleeved haori and while she didn't carry a sword like some of the others, she had a...giant...spoon...?

Yeah, that is fucking weird...

He looked towards the other row of people and the first guy he saw closest to the old man, and one word came to his mind:

Gopher.

His upper teeth were showing, along with his bored looking face. He seemed like a guy that was ready to crack a joke the moment the opportunity presented itself.

He saw that he had brown eyes and his hair was long and blonde, though not as bright as his own.

Next to him was another guy that seemed rather laid back, as the glasses on his face made him look like he was asleep if he wanted to be. He had a pretty weird hairdo as it was large and rounded with sideburns that were pretty long and his haori was short-sleeved showing his muscled arms.

The silver haired guy seemed like he had a stick up his ass, and took shit too seriously...ughh he had a feeling he would be troublesome in the future. Heh, now he was sounding like Shikamaru.

He took in his appearance and saw that he had the number 69 tattooed on his mid-chest area for some stupid reason. His haori was sleeveless and wore a pair of fingerless black gloves that covered most of his forearms.

Though the big guy next to him made all of the Akimichi's seem like little kids in comparison. He was at the very least seven feet tall, and had a dark complexion, dark hair, and dark eyes. He had two spiked piercings below his lips, which Naruto never really understood those kind of things to begin with. And his appearance was very rough, like the guy could care less if he had any good hygiene. His fingernails were chipped, a lot of facial hair, and his body hair looked like a damn forest. But Naruto could see the raw strength in this guy, a lazy man with a good amount of power.

If learning from how Choji was, it was better to not get into a fight with this guy. And he more than likely would take offense to getting called fat too...

Now the white haired guy next to him seemed like he just got out of the hospital, his hair was in a long ponytail and probably had some major power despite the sickly appearance. He gave off a compassionate and friendly aura and Naruto compared him to almost like Hashirama, though he highly doubted that he was dumb like he and the First Hokage. However...there was something else around or rather inside of him, like it was almost holding him together, he couldn't really describe it...

All of these people were certainly no pushovers and they all had their own skills and abilities that made them different from one another, like the Kage's themselves.

"This Captain's meeting will now come to order." The old man had tapped his cane down loudly to get their attention. "About 37 hours ago, a massive disturbance had occurred somewhere and one of the 72 barriers between the Soul Society and the Soul King's Palace was shattered, and effectively destroyed."

Naruto saw that all eyes from the 'Captains' shot up in shock and astonishment, save for perhaps the fat guy who merely just raised a brow in curiosity.

The woman with the wooden spatula was the first to speak up over the others, after the old man told them what had happened. "That's impossible! Only members of the Royal Guard are capable of doing so, and even then, wouldn't they investigate the situation instead?" It appeared that she knew these things better than anyone else in the room.

The old man nodded, "Yes, normally they would have, however no threat or disturbance was detected in the Royal Palace, and they believe it occurred some where here in the Soul Society, hence why they brought down the Sekkeiseki walls to protect the Seireitei. It now falls to us to investigate the disturbance and discover how and why the barrier was destroyed."

Meanwhile Naruto was now freaking out a bit, from what they said. 'Oh, shit! I gotta let the boss know!'

Though he needed to know more of who specifically who would be tracking him down, before popping himself to the boss.

The old man looked towards the dark skinned woman. "Captain of Squad Two, Yoruichi Shioin, captain of Squad Five, Shinji Hirako, captain of Squad Seven, Love Aikawa, captain of squad Nine, Kensei Muguruma, and captain of Squad Twelve, Kirio Hikifune. You five will be the ones in charge of the investigation. Captain of Squad Four, Retsu Unohana, you will standby at the ready to await any possible casualties in the medical treatment hall. Captain of Squad Six, Ginrei Kuchiki, captain of Squad Eight, Shunsui Kyoraku, captain of Squad Eleven Kenpachi Kiganjo, and captain of Squad Thirteen Jushiro Ukitake. You four will stay to guard the Seireitei. We do not know anything at the moment, nor do we know how long this investigation will go on for, as this information will stay highly confidential it will be made to the lieutenants and other seated officers on a need-to-know basis if need be, dismissed." The old man tapped his can once more to signify the end of the meeting.

As the rest of the captains began to file out, the NaruClone now had a choice.

'I could just pop now and let the boss know what just happened, and he's prolly looking for a library right now, so he'd know who's coming after him...on the other hand, I could tail any of the investigators and see firsthand who I'm dealing with, but at the risk of possible discovery...' Both choices were decent ones at that, though he didn't know just how well the Shinigami were at detection, and having all of these powerful people in one area while simply attending a meeting let their guard down, so they didn't need to worry about intruders.

In the end he chose to just disperse and get the info he had back to the boss. Leaping off the rooftop and away towards another so no one would hear or see the smoke from the dispersal.

* * *

-The Real Naruto-

* * *

He had been waking around for a bit inside the compound, and noted that there were several tall thin towers on this floor. As he investigated he saw that they were in fact homes for these people down here, and that they all lived down here.

"These guys really don't get out much, at all if going by the way these towers are set up. No wonder people hate them on the outside, they don't have any actual experience in seeing what the people in the Rukongai are living in. Pompous assholes..."

He continued through the compound silently and came to an open door that led to a room with a walkway and a platform where light came from the bottom and this certainly peeked his curiosity.

He walker down the metal walkway toward the center platform where there was a machine with a screen set up, he looked around to see if there were any guards around, and luckily no there weren't by what he saw. It looked like there were other entrances into this room seeing that each of levels in the room had platforms, and the walls seemed like pull out shelves.

"A library maybe?"

There was a chair bolted down to the floor in front of the machine and Naruto decided to take a peek into what it was.

"Ok, let's see...what you are..."

As soon as Naruto started to mess around he saw that the setup was quite similar to a computer from home. "Ohhhh, so this is a computer, an judging how this room is setup..." He finally got into the system which had quite literally no security at all, arrogant Shinigami... "So it is a library, of the whole Soul Society."

The NaruClones both had dispersed and now he go the info. Those captains were going to be a real pain and now that he had an entire library on the entire place, it was the perfect opportunity to get info on them.

"Ok, let's see. Shinigami."

As he punched it up on the computer, he saw several files pertaining to the Shinigami:

Soul King

Royal Family

Royal Palace

Oken

Five Great Noble Familes

Central 46

Soul Society Laws

Soul Society Punishments

Gotei 13

Royal Guard

Kido Corps

Stealth Force

Rukongai

Seireitei

Central Great Underground Prison

Sokyoku

Shinigami Dossiers

Gigai

Artificial Soul [New Data]

Shin'o Academy

Gatekeepers

Pluses

Demi-Hollows

Hollows

Menos Grande

Arrancar

Spiritual Energy

Spiritual Pressure

Reishi

And several other things came up on the screen.

"Huh, got a few things here that could give me a lotta info..." He was just going to stay here and read everything that he wanted, but unfortunately time wasn't on his side and he needed this info if he was going to survive while raising a kid.

He looked around to see if he could find something portable to take with him, he looked down and saw to the left of the large computer that there were a few slots for some laptops that were used by the people down here so he opted to take one with him back home.

They wouldn't miss a single laptop here, since they certainly appeared to be very arrogant and stupid at that too.

Naruto was no tech wiz like Sakura or some of the others back in the Leaf Village, but he had a basic understanding of downloading info from one thing to another. He found a data transfer cable that linked the laptop to the main computer and selected everything he had come across pertaining to the Shinigami.

It didn't take very long, but as the download completed he heard a couple of voices walking by the doorway, "I see no reason why we should try to block her promotion. The creation of the Artificial Soul is an immense jump in our capabilities of operating in the World of the Living, I just don't understand it, the Soul King himself said that was a benefit to the Soul Society."

"You know how some of the others are, they see it as an offense. A possible negative after effect to the flow of souls and stabilization between the worlds, and that perhaps Hollows may feed on these souls and more will be born. And I agree with you, but you know how some of these people are, set in their ways...this deadlock will probably be in this situation for a while. But it will only take one vote to change the outcome, so hopefully it'll get resolved soon and..." The person turned to the Great Spirit Libraary where he saw that the computer was left on, "...hmm? Was anyone in here before we went into session?"

"Uhhh, I think so...why?"

"Because the screen shows recent activity in the last few hours."

Meanwhile Naruto had completely forgotten about the history feature on computers, he was crouching underneath the platform where the computer was located. He had grabbed the laptop and a portable recharger so he wouldn't worry so much about the laptop losing power, but now he was sweating a bit at the possibility of his discovery. 'Shit! Shit! Shit! I can't get caught no! No way in hell!'

As luck would have it, the men above him were arrogant and idiotic in a sense, "Eh, it's probably nothing. Anyway, let's get to bed. My back is aching from all the sitting around all day."

"I'm with you, guess we'll be in this deadlock for a while won't we?"

"Yup."

The men walked back out of the room and towards their respective 'homes', giving Naruto the chance to slip away undetected.

He had sealed the laptop and equipment in a scroll in his pack and made his way back to the underwater entrance.

Now getting in this place was one thing, getting out another...

He was considering getting out the same way he got in, but odds were that someone would see him, so he decided to try and get out at the edge of the Seireitei and go through the sphere at the top of the wall.

He was still thinking on some of the things that were clearly not working for the Rukongai from what he saw. Poverty, hunger, strife, crime...these things had to change if the Soul Society was to move forward like the Elemental Nations, which he was still trying to figure out how he was no longer there.

But he believed that maybe he could use chakra here like the Sage did back home, to hopefully connect the people here with one another, however if going by how the people acted here mostly, then things could turn out much, much worse than home. Though maybe if he just did it with one person instead, and he thought he knew just the person, or rather, a certain little baby girl to give chakra to...

He was able to slip past numerous Shinigami guards in the night and approached the wall and started to make his ascent. "Ok, if I just use my Six Paths Mode for just a brief second, and ram the shield with a Goudodama shield, I can go through the hole really quickly and then just turn it off once I'm over the wall, and hopefully no one will see me."

He looked around the area and saw that while no one was around, he had the chance to go right now.

"Ok, here it goes."

Naruto ran up the side of the wall, and shifted into Six Paths, "Ok...now!" His Goudodama shifted into a spear like shape and went straight through the barrier making a hole large enough for him to run through. Naruto jumped through the hole and landed his outside the wall and noticed that he was just a bit away from where he had initially came in, and he was able to find his back to his little house where his Clone was still watching over little Rukia, whom was still asleep soundly.

Naruto took off the mask and wig and had gotten into some sleeping clothes and would figure out things from here on out in the morning, now he needed rest.

Although, there was one thing he needed to do first beforehand. Naruto walked into Rukia's room and looked at her cute snoozing form, and started to think as to how he could give her chakra enough for it to grow with her as time progressed. He looked down to his hands and started talking out loud to himself, "Maybe I can use that whole 'Creation of All Things' to grow a chakra network in her and whatnot like Super Gramps Sage did before." He placed two fingers on her head and heart and closed his eyes in concentration, his fingertips began to glow and spread to Rukia as the light began to envelop her tiny body, she shuffled in discomfort but stayed still through the process and Naruto finished his work, with the light dying down and eventually Naruto taking his fingers off his daughter.

"I wonder if it actually worked..." He began to gather the natural energy to see if Rukia had received what he had given her, "Alright let's see...ah ha! It worked!"

Then he immediately regretted that decision.

"Whaaa! Wha-whaaa!" Rukia started to cry from his little outburst.

"Shit..."

However he was unaware of who had seen his glowing form momentarily in the Seireitei...

* * *

-About Half an Hour Ago-

* * *

Kisuke had gotten done with a couple of inmates that needed to be placed in the Maggot's Nest, and was walking back to the Squad Two barracks, he let out a tiring sigh into the night, "Man, twice already those guys have forgotten who's been taking care of them. What a shame, though hopefully I can get some free time tomorrow to finish up with the glider, man...it'll be sweet." He smiled and rubbed his hands together in anticipation, even having a slight bit of drool dripping from his mouth, everyone else would be envious of it!

Though as he was walking in a nice open area, he saw a strange light in his peripherals and turned to see a golden-yellow light traveling right up the walls of the Seireitei, "What in the...how..." He saw that the glowing form was similar to a man literally running up the Sekkeiseki walls, which should be impossible! All Spiritual Energy would be completely negated with contact of the walls and no type of Kido could get around it!

"Well...looks like I found myself a new mystery to figure out. Guess that glider's gonna have to wait." He Shunpoed back to the barracks and walked back towards his quarters/lab, though just before he got into his own devices, a member of the Stealth Force had arrived to inform him.

"3rd Seat Urahara."

Kisuke turned around to see Yoruichi's favorite little member Soi-fon with her usual look on her face.

"Why what can I do for you, Soi-fon? Need help with anything?" He had his own usual lackadaisical smile on with a cheerful demeanor added to it. At always worked on everyone and made them pretty relaxed around him, well...almost everyone...

"Lady Yoruichi has summoned you to the assembly hall . I highly suggest that you head there now, Lady Yoruichi stated that this was a priority." Soi-fon turned around walked back towards her quarters having received her orders already. While she wasn't a seated officer like Urahara, whom while she didn't hate, she simply didn't like him that much. _'I just don't see what Lady Yoruichi sees in him...'_

Lady Yoruichi had told her to attend the assembly as well since she seemed to favor her over most others, save for Urahara.

"Well, better not keep Yoruichi waiting and whatnot."

He Shunpoed over to his best friends office where many of the Stealth Force members were sitting down with Yoruichi finished talking, "...you now know your objective, dismissed."

A collective 'Yes Ma'am' reverberated through the hall and they disappeared into the night.

Yoruichi looked to see her friend standing at the entrance, "So, how did things go in the Maggot's Nest? I hope things didn't go too sour."

"Oh just a couple of guys getting amnesic from being down there for so long, nothing big, the transfer was pretty smooth so no problems there." Granted they didn't put up much of a fight when he had to flare his Spiritual Pressure a bit to get them to see that fighting him was kinda stupid. "So what was that little assembly for?"

Yoruichi preceded to tell Kisuke what was discussed at the captains meeting and now that she was in charge of the investigation of what had happened.

Kisuke was now trying to process as to what exactly made that sort of thing possible, but then again he did just see some sort of being ram the barrier and escape the Seireitei like nothing, so..."Actually I saw something just as unbelievable as that some time ago."

"Hmm? How so?"

Kisuke gave her the details of what he had seen and they both agreed, "This is no coincidence. They both have to be connected somehow, with a barrier to the Royal Palace destroyed _and_ the barrier protecting the Seireitei being pierced, we could be looking at something...or rather, someone that could possibly destroy the Soul Society."

"This is pretty serious, we need to find out who or what exactly did this fast. Did you see where the figure had went in the Rukongai?"

"It headed into the Western area, so more than likely it's hiding somewhere in there."

"That certainly narrows the location down a bit. But that's still a lot of ground to cover, I'll let Kukkaku know to keep a look out for anything unusual. Hopefully she or her brother will find something interesting."

"I'm gonna head back to my room, and try to replicate the barriers and see if anything we have can break through the barriers. Maybe that can give us a way to possibly counter whatever this being has in their arsenal, if they aren't too friendly."

"Alright, but I also want you to go out and see what you can find along with the other squad members. You always have a keen eye more so than anyone else."

"And what about you? I can't imagine that you'd rather do paperwork instead." He had a teasing tone added to it since he knew how much she hated paperwork.

Yoruichi just chuckled at her friends remark, he always did tease whoever it was with whatever material he had up his sleeve, and with her, he had a lot but he simply chose to use the small things most of the time. "I suppose I could stay and do paperwork, buuuut then again~..."

"Doing this little hunt just sounds better on the other hand and it gets you out of the suffocating air of the Seireitei." He pointed out to her.

"Exactly. And I think I'm going to have some fun with it." Kisuke already had a feeling what she was getting at.

"And by fun you mean..."

"I mean by this." Yoruichi's voice had already become more masculine and her form was now in that of a small black cat with golden eyes. "I mean, whoever would believe that a cat like me, could be suspicious enough to be a Captain of the Gotei 13." She said in a playfull, sarcastic manner.

"That joke will never get old. Well, I best be on my way now. Take care Yoruichi."

"You too Kisuke, and try not blow up the barracks again please."

"Oh, come on! It happened one time thirty years ago!"

"And yet, no one has forgotten about it."

Kisuke had a dark raincloud over his head and the rain was dropping over him and down to the floor, "So cruel sometimes..."

Yoruichi just sweat dropped at her friends antics...he hardly changed at all but then again, neither has she. And those weren't bad things at all...

* * *

-The Next Day-

* * *

Naruto woke in the chair that he had used to try and rock Rukia back to sleep, luckily she managed to calm down and get back to sleep for the most part, though as fate would have it, he had fallen asleep along with her.

She was up next to his face with dried drool on his cheek, it almost looked like she giving him a little baby kiss.

 _'Cuuuuuuute.'_

Naruto was really debating whether or not to wake her up or let her snooze away. Though he really needed to get her fed and a bath, seeing as she never got one at all in the last two days.

Though in all honesty, he himself was still rather tired. Two straight days of fighting in the Fourth Great Ninja War, and being in some new world, this...afterlife per say was kinda taxing, so he decided to just rest up until Rukia decided she wanted to wake up.

As he began to drift back into sleep he slowly was brought into his mindscape, and he was now laying down in the water, though he felt a nice breeze and the scent of shrubbery and trees filled his nose, and the heavy breathing of his friend.

He smirked at this and heard his friend's words, **"We did it..."**

"We did it..." Naruto now sat up and took in his new surroundings. He was laying in a small pond in a meadow surrounded by a forest, he didn't do this, or did he? His face was scrunched up in confusion at this.

"So how did it change from a sewer..." He gestured around with his arms, "...to this?"

 **"No idea. So, what's with this?"** Kurama gestured to his right eye, **"I hope you aren't trying to mimic your perverted sensei's sense of style. Although your current attire isn't much better."**

Naruto would have just started saying crap about how his attire was waaaaaaaay better than Kakashi-sensei's but he kinda sorta needed to tell Kurama about their current predicament, "Oh, well...just bear with me on this, ok? I'm still trying to remember what exactly happened so hopefully I can explain to my little girl one day when she..."

He was interrupted by the fox when he basically held his hands up in a pleading manner and started moving them back in forth and a comedic fashion, **"Whoa, woah, woah, woah! Whoa...whoa, just, just woah...! What the hell do you mean by 'your little girl' ? How long were you and I out of contact for?"**

"Pretty sure for about maybe 36 hours or so? And by 'my little girl', I mean just that. My little girl."

Kurama just looked annoyed about how nonchalant he was about what he just said. If he was doing what he thought he was doing... **"I think it's best if you just start from the beginning."**

Naruto knew that odds were, Kurama would sling out an insult, but hey, he wouldn't be himself if he didn't.

Naruto simply told what had happened when he woke up near the pond in the outskirts, of how he found the baby Rukia, learning he was now in a dimension that was called an afterlife for some other place despite still being alive, how he found a nice secluded place to live, snuck into a supposed secure military compound where wannabe Shinigami's lived, took a bunch of their info from their library right out from under their noses, and came out unscathed and undiscovered.

Kurama just simply looked at his host/friend and despite how crazy he sounded, he wasn't lying. Though out of everything he was told, he only had one thing to say, **"You better just take that baby to some orphanage, she'd have better chances there than with you."**

Naruto just gave him a pretty dirty look that promised him pain, "Care to say why I should?"

Kurama just placed his paws in front of him trying to get out of any wrath the blonde ninja would bring him, **"Ok, ok, ok! Bad joke, I admit that. Sorry...but seriously, you really intend to raise this kid on your own?"**

"Yup, I sure as hell do. Granted I've done a bunch of stuff that sounded really stupid, and sometimes they do pan out that way..." He mumbled that last part to himself getting a slight scoff from the fox, "...but I've never been so sure about something in my life. I feel like I can give this girl a family, I mean granted just me isn't much of one, but it's still a family nonetheless. I won't sit by and watch her grow up like I did, without a family."

Kurama actually had to give him an appeasing look after his speech..."And she's so cuuuuute~!"...and there went the praise... **"So there's no talking you out of this, huh?"**

"Nope, not a chance in hell."

 **"Though, there is one thing you should probably consider, or rather two due to the circumstances surrounding you being her 'father' and what not."**

Naruto had a questioning look on his face that siad that more than likely there were a few things that he more than likely didn't tale into account, "Whaaaat would these two things that I should consider be?

Kurama held up two fingers and flipped them both up one after the other for his points, **"One. More than likely she already has a biological family, so you really need to consider the possibility that they may end up coming back to find her, and that odds are they could very well in fact find her, if they're persistent enough to do so. And, two. Say comes the time when she gets old enough to start wondering about her heritage, or rather..."** Kurama pointed towards Naruto now, **"...your heritage. Your history and background. I mean seriously if she ends up being like half of who you are, then she's going to pretty smart and she'll figure things out quickly if you do your job as a parent right."**

Naruto, while he himself was going to be Rukia's father, he never once did consider these things. Though odds are he wouldn't have to worry about it for a long time, "True, but I'll cross those bridges when I get to 'em."

 **"You really need to think these things through from now on..."**

"No sweat Bunny Ears!" He had a shit eating grin on his face, while Kurama's own face twitched in annoyance and anger of the forbidden nickname. Now of course he would normally just start a name calling contest with him...but this nickname was one he did not appreciate.

At all...

Like no joke...

Kurama flicked Naruto away with one of his tails, into the vastness of the mindscape and yelling in the distance, "I regret nothing!"

The fox smiled in the bit of enjoyment that he could do that when called the forbidden nickname, **"That felt good...ok time to sleep now."**

* * *

-Uzumaki Residence-

* * *

Naruto woke up after being swatted away by Kurama's tail into the distance. Would've sucked had he stayed in there, it would hurt like hell.

Though his eyes were more focused on the fact that baby Rukia was playing with his whiskers again, not that he really minded and all, he could care less, let play to her heart's content.

 _'I'll make things a little more enjoyable for her.'_

She started laughing a little now that he was awake and making funny faces at her while she was grabbing his whiskered cheeks, and moving them up and down, left and right, anywhere and everywhere they could go to without causing him a lot of pain.

Though while he enjoyed playing with her, he needed to get into that data he stole from the Shinigami, "Ok, time for you to get a bath since you haven't had one at all." Then that same damn smell hit him again, his face scrunched up a bit as he caught a wiff of it, "And a new diaper, that makeshift one did a lousy job of keeping the smell down."

Naruto made a Shadow Clone to change her diaper, while he himself looked up the stolen info, though the clone had a complaint..."Hey, boss. Why do I have to be the one to change the diaper?"

"Because I said so, that's why. Plus when you pop, I'll know how to change a real diaper."

"Wait, so I'm just guinea pig?" Rukia was pulling on his cheeks to some painstaking thresholds.

"Yup! Good luck~!"

The clone just grumbled a bit until he started making funny noises and faces to Rukia making her laugh adorably.

* * *

 **Alrighty then, that concludes the second chapter to this story and I hope you guys liked it.**

 **Now many of you guys are more than likely going to complain as to how and why I had Naruto give Rukia chakra. Just from what he has seen and learned from the locals of the Rukongai, the Soul Society as a whole is much worse than the Elemental Nations and that by trying to do what Hagoromo had done, such as giving chakra out wily nilly to everyone, things would become very bad, very fast. And people would be dying left and right like no tomorrow, completely upsetting the balance of souls in the cycle of Transmigration in Bleach-verse. So right now, Naruto will only give chakra to Rukia, his adopted daughter that he hopes will be able to help change the Soul Society for the better, slowly over time. Will having chakra and Jutsu interfere with her own Shinigami powers? No as I have a plan for Rukia when she begins to use both Shinigami and Shinobi powers in the future once she joins Gotei 13.**

 **In another argument that would be valid is to have chakra, one must be alive, now someone had a good argument to this and I will put it right here what he had said, and I hope that many of you can be open about this concept. Here's what he said:**

 ** _I find it funny how in the Bleachverse everyone is "dead", but at the same time they all have Life-Force too. Thanks Kubo lol. I mean look at what happened to Ukitake he died when Mimihagi absorbed his organs and Life-Force. Hell, diseases exist in the SS as well. You might as well just call the SS/HM the real world only instead of being made of things being made up of matter, its made up of Reishi instead. They technically are the same exact thing but given a different name._**

 ** _Back to the Chakra part though, the Shinju created Chakra that Kaguya ate. Hagoromo then was born with her Chakra and always had the Rinnegan, which he then gave his Chakra to all things on the Earth. Naruto already knows the Chakra transfer technique from when he gave his Chakra out to boost the Alliance's Chakra. Since Naruto has Six Paths Senjutsu now and Rinnegan he can do everything the Sage of the Six Paths could do. You could easily have Naruto replicate what Hagoromo did and give whoever he wanted to give his chakra to and then learn Jutsu from him. It wouldn't interfere with any powers they have and all it can do is boost abilities ever higher. Since Bleach Characters have life force and spiritual energy, they just lack actual Chakra to do so. As far as Naruto would know Shinigami/Hollows/Quincy for some reason can't manipulate their own Life-Force Energy at all, just their Spiritual Energy. So when faced with powers that affect Life-Force like Naruto's Rinnegan Human Path/Yang Release based powers they would have no defense to fight that kind of manipulation, Naruto even touches somebody with the Hell Path and they can't move at all because of it manipulating the opponents Life-Force and will rip out the victims life if they lie to him. As seen with Juha Bach's Holy Selection when he was surrounded by the Reishi absorbing tree, and Mimihagi consuming Ukitake's Life-Force. The Reishi Tree couldn't stop Bach from sending that power to revive the elites because it was a manipulation of Life-Force not Spiritual Energy and Ukitake could not power Mimihagi with his Spiritual Energy, but at the cost of his Life-Force._**

 ** _Chakra works more like an augmentation to a person's power sources rather than its own physical thing. It's more symbiotic than anything. As long as a person has a Life-Force and Chakra they can make Yang Release. If the person has Spiritual Energy and Chakra they can make Yin-Release. They have both and Chakra they can increase their powers indefinitely as long as they keep training their body and their mind._**

 **So I hope that this will help clear things up about that, and if you don't like what I had done, then I apologize for it, but this is what I wanted to do for this story.**

 **Anyways, I hope that you guys stick with me even though I more than likely went outside characterization a bit for some of these people and groups, and continue to read and review.**

 **Now I have recently posted a poll on my profile concerning the fate of one of the characters in Bleach-verse, and I want you guys to think hard on it too, as I have become indecisive about it as I can go either route with the choices.**

 **Also I have an announcement pertaining to my Young Justice story. I will unfortunately be cancelling it. I am deeply sorry to all of you guys that want to see more of it, but the file in which I had made for just that story was accidentally deleted by my young nephew who was playing on my computer at the time, and I had so many different ideas and plots for that story. Sad to say, I chose not to back them up on anything else and I don't want to try and start that stuff all over again. Again I am sorry, but you guys can read the already super long and still continuing story Shinobi Rising by Black Phoenix Risen as I highly recommend you guys check that one out, while there are somethings that irk me about it, it's still a good read nonetheless.**

 **So continue to read, review ( This one more than anything! Please, please, please, pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase review! I want to know what you guys are thinking about the story, and because of the reviews I can continue to make this story better)** **, favorite and follow. Until next time :)**


	3. Chapter 2: Settling In

Chapter 2: Settling In and Playing Hero

* * *

-Uzumaki Residence-

* * *

Now that Naruto had a chance to actually look up the info he stole from Central 46.

"Ok, now first things first. Who the hell are the guys chasing me"

He clicked on the file pertaining to the Shinigami Dossiers, mainly the captains, lieutenants and other seated officers and a rather small list came up:

Squad 1 -

*Head Captain Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto

Lieutenant Chojiro Sasakibe

3rd Seat Genshiro Okikiba

Squad 2 -

*Captain Yoruichi Shihoin/Commander in Chief of the Stealth Force and its Subdivisions

Lieutenant Marenoshin Omaeda

3rd Seat Kisuke Urahara

Squad 3 -

Lieutenant Rojuro Otoribashi

3rd Seat Chikane Iba

Squad 4 -

Captain Retsu Unohana

Lieutenant Seinisuke Yamada

Squad 5 -

Captain Shinji Hirako

Lieutenant Sosuke Aizen

Squad 6 -

Captain Ginrei Kuchiki

Lieutenant Sojun Kuchiki

3rd Seat Koga Kuchiki

4th Seat Ginjiro Shirogane

Squad 7 -

Captain Love Aikawa

Lieutenant Jin'emon Kotsubaki

3rd Seat Sajin Komomura

Squad 8 -

Captain Shunsui Kyoraku

Lieutenant Lisa Yadomaru

3rd Seat Tatsufusa Enjoji

Squad 9 -

Captain Kensei Muguruma

Lieutenant Mashiro Kuna

3rd Seat Heizo Kasaki

4th Seat Shinobu Eishima

5th Seat Kaname Tosen

6th Seat Izaemon Todo

Squad 10 -

None Available At This Time

Squad 11 -

Captain Kenpachi Kiganjo

Squad 12 -

Captain Kirio Hikifune

Lieutenant Hiyori Sarugaki

Squad 13 -

Captain Jushiro Ukitake

3rd Seat Kaien Shiba

4th Seat Miyako Shiba

Co-5th Seat Kiyone Kotetsu

Co-5th Seat Sentaro Kotsubaki

6th Seat Hidetomo Kajomaru

"Well, at least I got a good list of people. Now, what all do they have up their sleeve. Hmmm...guess Squad 10 isn't exactly stable right now given that they don't have any commanding officers, so who's actually in charge of them right now?" Naruto scrolled down to see the structure and history of the Gotei 13.

The group was founded around 2000 years ago by Yamamoto and a few others of high caliber in skill with only himself and Retsu Unohana being among the original captains of the organization that are still active as of today. The only captains that have not been replaced by others are Shunsui Kyoraku and Jushiro Ukitake, who were among the first graduates of Shin'o Academy and who are both subsequently students of Yamamoto.

When officers of a squad are not present to ensure its efficiency, the Head Captain will preside over its operations and other duties, until a ranked officer of sufficient skill can be placed into the squad.

The Stealth Force is under direct control of the Shioin Clan, and its subservient noble family, the Feng Clan. The current head of the Shioin Clan is the Commander in Chief of all operations of the Stealth Force and is under the command of the Head Captain of the Gotei 13 additionally. Each of the first five seated officers of Squad 2 including the current captain and lieutenant are commanding officers of a specific unit, and can be members of the Gotei 13.

The primary role of the Stealth Force is to conduct patrols and surveillance in both enemy and domestic territory, and to carry out top secret operations such as assassinations and people who have broken the law.

"So basically these guys are ninjas for the afterlife..." An amused smirk found its way onto his face, "...I'll be the judge of that, hehehe."

"Hey Boss! I'm done with _your_ duty as a dad."

The clone walked back to the real Naruto and just put Rukia right in his lap, "Now since it's done, _you_ should be the one to get her dressed and ready for the day."

"Uh, I made you to do just that, while I went though this Shinigami info. You gotta do it, I'm the boss." Rukia was trying to crawl up to Naruto's face and he just brought his arms down to hold her up a bit so she wouldn't fall and hit her widdle head.

No telling how brain damaged she'd be afterwards.

"Good Luck!" The clone then just dispersed, annoying the real Naruto who's lip was being tugged on by his daughter, "Ok, I guess I can look at this stuff afterwards." The clones sometimes had different personalities and didn't always listen to him.

Troublesome fellows if anything at times.

 _ **'Let me have a look. Besides I can come up with actual strategies that you can use against the Shinigami if you run into them, and get into a fight with.'**_

 _'Knock yourself out.'_

Naruto made a Shadow Clone for Kurama to act through and let the fox look through the files. Meanwhile he himself went to her room and sorted what he had bought for her to wear, not much of a variety given he was hardly able to buy anything with his currency, so he needed to get the Soul Society's form of money.

So he needed a plan:

1) Find a way to get a lot of money, very quickly.

2) Find a publisher who will put out his Godfather's books under a pen name. Which he figured that he could do it under Pervy Sage's name in a way to honor him.

3) Find a place to open up a Ramen stand like Old Man Ichiraku and use that, along with the books to get money flowing to him and his daughter.

"Guess I can go find a place to gamble. Better that than stealing. But first, you need something to wear other than that cute little kimono" he said the sentence more towards Rukia who he was holding up to his funny looking face.

She eventually tried to grab at his nose and gave him a good squeeze, putting it into the threshold of pain. Naruto pulled her away to prevent her from doing any lasting damage and pulled off the PJ kimono leaving her shivering a bit, but not before Naruto picked her up in his warm arms where she got a comfy and laid on his shoulder.

"Ok, let's see...a red daytime dress, a yellow one, a pink one, a white one, a purple one..." He looked down at Rukia who was currently just looking around the room in her own little world, readjusted her to look at each of the dresses, "Ok Rukia, which one do you wanna wear today?"

Rukia looked down at each of the dresses, and started to move towards the purple one and grabbed it, sort of shoving it in Naruto's face a bit.

"Ah, the purple one then huh? Looks like it's your favorite color. Shame that you don't like orange...or will you one day?" Naruto took the dress out of Rukia's hands and placed her down in the crib with the main gate down a bit, and had slipped the main part of the dress on and tied the little sash around her to make sure it didn't fall off her.

Now he had to get some clothes on for himself so he wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. He got lucky yesterday, now with the Shinigami actively hunting him down, he couldn't take any chances. He took Rukia with him, but not before grabbing a stuffed rabbit that a clone of his picked up yesterday in the markets for Rukia to play with in the meantime, which she immediately started to naw on it.

"Thought you might like that. Hmm? Guess your teeth are gonna come in soon then."

Naruto with Rukia in his arms, walked back to his room where it was rather a mess at the moment. Many a kunai, shuriken, scrolls, clothes, books, and the Gunbai were strolled across the place, and his bed wasn't even made. His eyebrow twitched a bit at the laziness that his clone had last night of organizing the place...no way in hell was he gonna have a damn infestation in this place! Not after Sakura kicked his ass for the crappy attention he gave his own apartment!

"Great, I gotta clean up this mess myself. Doubt a clone would actually do the job since the last one just went and got lazy with it."

Naruto juts sighed heavily with the work he had to do, but nonetheless, he needed money from here. Just like his clothes, his village's currency stood out from their currency. Hopefully that merchant was smart enough to hide that stuff from the Shinigami and melt it down so it'd be more valuable that way.

"Though if he snitches, guess I could use a Genjutsu to wipe his mind a bit before he does, if I can manage that at least."

Naruto had thrown on some clothes that would pass as what they wear here, and made two Shadow Clones to head to get some progress done. "Ok, so..." He pointed to the clones one after another, "...you head on out to go find a publisher for Pervy Sage's book, and you. Head on out to see if you can find a place to set up a ramen shop. Gotta get some money rolling in without getting any bullshit gambling debts."

The clones saluted their boss.

"Right!"

"Right!"

The clones Shunshined out of the house back into the Rukongai. "Ok..." Naruto looked down to Rukia in his arms, "Now let's go do some gambling. And hopefully you won't pick up on it, otherwise you'd suck all the time like Granny Tsunade." Now, granted babies weren't that intelligent in their first few months, and sometimes they don't understand things entirely, but Naruto found his face smothered for a sec with Rukia's stuffed rabbit, and she herself laughing a little.

He would have been annoyed at these things usually, but he couldn't, since her laugh was too cute, so he simply smiled at her action. "Man, I really gotta teach you not to throw things at me. Though you gotta be nine months old at the least, I mean most babies aren't that smart but you...you seem to be a bit different." Was it just being around him that made her seem to be able to react in more intelligent ways? Or this place? Was it the fact that he gave her a piece of his power and let it grow inside her? Questions for another time.

"Ok, let's head out and gamble."

And with that, Naruto decided to place a transparency jutsu around the house, just in case the Shinigami decided to make a house call and go through his stuff.

* * *

-Central 46 Compound; Meeting Hall-

* * *

"And the head count was correct. We are missing a single laptop, as well as a portable charger."

The members of the Central 46 were called together after some investigation was done about the library access had been used last night...while they were all in session and everyone was accounted for.

"We also brought up the access history and saw that someone had copied and stolen information on many things, mostly pertaining to the Shinigami."

"This cannot be ignored. If someone had infiltrated us so easily, we could be looking at an extremely deadly enemy in the future. They must be put into the Maggot's Nest as soon as possible."

"You're joking?! They should be killed on the spot, better to be safe than sorry with the situation that we're in right now."

One of the members decided to voice a bit of distaste. "You mean like how the previous Central 46 council had given the order to exterminate the Bounts?" That left the entire chamber in silence.

It was no secret that the extinction/genocide of the Bounts conducted several centuries ago was a bit of a controversy. While the order had gone through anyway, the deadlock was broken by one vote and the fact that they could consume Souls, both dead and alive made many worry. The previous Central 46 councils were arrogant, but they were not without their own remorse or faults. They did what they believed was right at the time, and now it was only a matter of time before that decision came back to haunt them.

One of the members broke the silence that was made with that last comment. "So how should we actually proceed?"

"Obviously we need to inform the Head Captain of what's happened, in doing so would simply increase the chances of capturing the perpetrator of the break in. Once then, we will question the individual or individuals and proceed from there as to what will be done. If we make one wrong move, then this will come to haunt us in the future. Just as it will with the Quincy and just like the Bounts."

Many of the members looked at one another and all nodded in agreement. "Very well, let us proceed with this decision until then."

* * *

-NaruClone 1-

* * *

"So, what do ya think?"

The NaruClone had managed to find someone that would be able to publish the books, and right now he was reading through the manuscripts of the first Icha Icha volume, that his clone had made last night. His expression so far was rather neutral and he had been that so far, the clone on the other hand was rather nervous.

The man had shut the manuscript and placed it on the table, and slid it towards Naruto. His face still set in a neutral form and stared back and forth between the manuscript and Naruto, it was like this for a few seconds until the man broke the silence permeating the air, "Well, Mr Uzumaki. I must say..."

That odds were he wouldn't publish this kind of smut...

"...that this stuff is amazing!" The publisher gave him a big smile, thumbs ups, and his face was a little red.

Naruto just blinked owlishly at the man's words, "Uhh, scussi...?"

"I said this material is great! I man seriously, the stuff that you have in this is absolutely fantastic! There really isn't anything at all like this in the Soul Society, it's so unique and the creativity is astounding!"

"...so...you'll publish them then?"

"Of course, of course. Now let's knock out the details..."

 _'Wow, who woulda thought...I'll let boss know everything back at the house.'_ The clone thought to himself as he say down with his publisher for what would be more than likely the source of half his future income.

* * *

-NaruClone 2-

* * *

"Hmmm...I could do some work with this place, it is like Old Man Ichiraku's..." The other clone that was looking for a place to set up shop found a place that was only about thirty minutes away from his house. It was a little close to the Seireitei and odds were he'd have to deal with them later once he opened up and started doing business. "It is the only place I found so far, so I guess I can mark this place up for a possible buy."

He took out a small scroll out of his pocket that he had acquired yesterday from one of the merchants, as it had a map of the district and he marked down the location of the place. The building was situated between two others and had an awning over a small area with some crates underneath it. Guess it was some sort of storage place for whatever things that were in it.

"Hmmm...close by the Seireitei, near a few merchants and some housing units, got some shade, a good amount of space on the inside from what I can tell."

He marked this place as a high possibility to buy up and use for later, so he continued in looking throughout the area for a vacant building that was within good walking distance of his house.

* * *

-The Original Naruto with baby Rukia-

* * *

Naruto had been asking around where he could find some place to gamble, and so far they had told him some of the districts beyond number 50 or so had gambling districts but they were pretty cutthroat and dirty, though he replied that he didn't have to worry too much about things like that.

He had reached back into an area that he had come into originally, or at least an area that looked like it was run down, though it didn't smell like shit.

That was at least a step up from his landing point.

He noticed that Rukia was starting to doze off every now and then, but she would usually try to pull his hair to stay awake.

That shit would hurt.

So he settled for having her in front of him with her stuffed rabbit. Eventually she just conked out and snoozed away as he was walking. Kurama apparently had something to tell going how his voice was booming in his head.

 _ **'Hey, I managed to see what exactly makes the Shinigami powerful in their own right.'**_

 _'Their own right?'_

 _ **'Well, yeah. They more than likely can't hold a candle light to you as you are now and eventually as time goes by you'll be even stronger than now. But they have four different styles of combat or schools they have: Zanjutsu, Hakudo, Hoho and Kido.'**_

 _'Soooooo, I get Zanjutsu since pretty much everyone in the ANBU has to have it in order to qualify for selection, but what about the other three?'_

 _ **'Well, best comparison I can come up with is that Hakudo is their Taijutsu, Hoho is like the Shunshin and Kido is basically like Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, but their limited with the uses, as they use their swords to make up for that.'**_

 _'How so? They got a trick or two up their sleeve with their swords?'_

 _ **'Ehhh, more like a power up in a sense. They basically have some sort of ability that makes the shape change of the sort, the capabilities, gaining a change in nature of sorts, the possibilities are kinda large.'**_

 _'How large?'_ He was a little nervous depending on what exactly they could do specifically.

 _ **'Well they have melee types, Kido types, Kido sub types, elemental types like I said before, and then there are unclassified types that basically have weird abilities that aren't exactly in the norm.'**_

Naruto now had some understanding of what their swords could do, _'So, which ones should I watch out for specifically? I got the feeling that old dude with the long ass beard would give me some trouble.'_

 _ **'Long ass beard? Ah, the head honcho man himself. Let's see...ok, got him. His name is Genrysai Shigekuni Yamamoto, and he's the Head Captain of the Shinigami apparently.'**_

 _'That's a mouthful. So what exactly does his sword do?'_

 _ **'Their swords are actually called Zanpakuto, and he has the oldest and strongest fire type sword. And it's called Ryujin Jakka, once released, his power can double his base power.'**_

 _'As if he didn't seem strong enough as is.'_

 _ **'Well, let me ask you this. You have the Six Paths Senjutsu, right?'**_

 _'Yeah...?'_

 _ **'And in your fight with duckass, you now have Dojutsu. The Sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan and the Rinnegan. You're more than a match for him, not only that, I've got an idea for when you run into any Shinigami that could be a pain in the ass if you'll listen. You could technically force them to use only their base power and eliminate their Zanpakuto power for however long you want.'**_

Now that was one hell of an edge he could use. _'Ok, shoot. How am I gonna do that? If anything they'll release it once they start to fight me.'_

 _ **'Sharingan.'**_

There was quite a bit of disbelief in his voice abiut that answer, _'...really? How...?'_

 _ **'Ugghhh...ok fine let me put it to you this way. Remember when you first saw duckass after three years of training with the pervert sage? You subconsciously drew on my power since you were unable to beat him the first go around, you felt the need to use it again. You following me so far?'**_

 _'Well considering that this would mean a difference between life and death, yeah I would be following.'_

 _ **'Well, if you recall, duckass was able to enter your mindscape with his Sharingan, and was able to repel my power from you for a bit. You see, their Zanpakuto have an inner world like your mindscape in which they reside in. If you use Genjutsu to separate them from their respective Shinigami, then they can't use their full power.'**_ He hoped that this would at least help him get through any tough fights as this would be one hell of a trump card. Add the Rinnegan into it and the Six Paths Chakra, then it was practically an unbeatable ability. Even he and the other Tailed Beasts were unable to get out of the Genjutsu that Sasuke had used on them, and that was something else entirely than what Madara and Obito had done when they took control him.

As Naruto was conversing with his fox friend, he had actually been slowing down and just stopped to sit down on the side of the road. He was simply chatting away in his mind, though on the outside he looked as if he started to simply stare at the clouds passing by in the sky. _'Wow...well at least I have a nice trump card to have up my sleeve now.'_

 _ **'See, now you're getting smart finally.'**_

 _'Love you too, fuzzy wuzzy.'_

* * *

-Head Captain's Office-

* * *

"Is this information accurate?" Yamamoto was dealing with paperwork as usual and had appointed Koga Kuchiki as head of the task force to deal with rebels inside the Seireitei. While it was not just a position for him, but it was also a test for the young man as his longtime friend Ginrei Kuchiki had informed him of his growing power, and his faith in only himself.

It was blinding the boy, and they hoped that this position would help him see that he needed to be more responsible with his abilities and duties.

Now a messenger from Central 46 had come into his office with a high priority report, and it was signed by the six judges of the council.

So he had to listen to this report, regardless of how he thought of the council.

"Yes, sir. Last night at the same time of the captain's meeting, someone had snuck into the Central 46 compound and copied & stole all information pertaining to the Shinigami and the Seireitei. All members of the Central 46 council were in session at the time and were all accounted for, and no breach was detected nor was there any alarm."

This was a massive breach in their security, as well as an embarrassment to the Seireitei's military and capability. Especially with this current civil war going on, this could be a a new element that the enemy may have employed.

That would spell disaster for them.

"Very well, inform the captains of this new information and have security of the Central 46 compound increased."

"But sir, they would protest to this since no one is allowed inside except for the members and who they judge."

"So then they would like to have another break in, then, hmm..?" The messenger was about to speak up, but the old man had beaten him to it, "No, of course they wouldn't. Now go and I will send more security to the compound."

"Y-yes sir, right away." The messenger Flash Stepped out of the office leaving the man to his thoughts and paper work, though with this new development, then the Lieutenants needed to be informed as well.

He turned to his lieutenant with orders, "Chojiro, inform the lieutenants of the squads of this development. We need to mobilize our able bodied officers to capture whoever has done this. Oh, and send Captain Hikifune here please."

"Yes, Head Captain, sir." Chojiro left in a Flash Step just as the messenger, leaving the old man to his thoughts and paper work.

 _'It's just one thing after another...I'm getting too old for this...'_

* * *

-Naruto & Baby Rukia-

* * *

Naruto stepped inside the place where he had gotten some info on, and get some gambling done. The place wasn't too savory and the people inside weren't the best examples of sociable characters, some of them with scars and nasty cuts on their faces and the visible parts of his bodies.

They murmured amongst themselves, since more than likely they don't see teens in here very often, and the dirty looks they were giving him weren't very welcoming as it looked like they were trying to intimidate him. So he decided to show them that he wasn't going to keel over like some dog, "What, you guys never seen a teen dad walk in here to gamble?"

He put on the best face he could that said, 'Don't fuck with me or you get fucked up'. Many of them went back to their gambling and drinking while a few still stared him down, so he decided to show off a bit with his own gambling luck. He walked over to a table that had quite a few people by it and pulled out the gold coins that he had in his little froggie, "So..." He got the dealer's attention along with the rest of the table, "...how much does it take to enter?"

The dealer looked down at the coins with wide eyes, "Well, I'd say you've covered several games already, though you could probably put some of that away, never know if some rough people could jump you later on. Even if you got a kid with you."

At least the guy was being honest a bit, though Naruto just brushed it off. "Thanks for the advice, but I doubt any of these guys would wanna take me in a fight." None of these guys actually made him think twice about getting in a fight with them, though he really didn't want to with Rukia around. But a did get a few glares to the back of his head...

"Alright, it's your funeral buddy..."

The dealer brought Naruto into the game, little did they know how much his luck brought him into the place.

* * *

-Head Captain's Office-

* * *

"With this new information, we must not caught off guard and allow another break in."

Kirio had been asked to head to the Head Captain's office by his lieutenant for some reason as he wasn't abel to give her one, though with the new intel on the break in at Central 46, she had a feeling it had something to do with her specifically since she was part of the investigation to the broken barrier to the Royal Palace.

It didn't sound like something that she really needed to be a part of, "And you want me to supervise it sir?"

"No. Instead I need you to find the source of this directly. I do not believe that this is something that is ordinary and due to your most recent endeavor, I think this will require a more scientific approach."

He was mentioning her creation of the Artificial Souls and the Gigai's. A breakthrough considering that the thought of doing so was considered impossible, and gave them a massive push to the future in terms of operating in the World of the Living.

"You want me to find any evidence that leads to the source of the problem, and rind a way to counter it then, from what I'm assuming?"

"Correct. Use whatever you may need to find out, and report once you have your findings."

The scientist in her jumped up in joy at this. Tackling a project like this with little to nothing on the source was a challenge and she welcomed it.

She smirked at this new project.

"Yes, sir. I'll see what I can come up with."

The old man nodded ,"Good, though where will you start exactly?"

Kirio put a finger to her cheek in thought, "I was thinking about starting with the Shakonmaku."

That confused Yamamoto a bit as he raised an eyebrow, "Why would you start with that?"

"Well, considering that one of barriers protecting the Royal Palace was shattered and destroyed, and that we had a break in within the Seireitei...one should assume that the Shakonmaku was already broken through to get in here."

He gave it some thought and she made sense, "Very well then, I'll inform the others not to interfere with your progress."

"Thank you, sir." Kirio went straight back to her barracks to get ready for her latest project. _'I think it's time that I started getting Hyori into science...who knows, she may end up enjoying it.'_

* * *

-Naruto & Baby Rukia-

* * *

A lot of people in the place where watching the last game diligently, as Naruto had been on a winning streak nonstop. A few guys had called Naruto out on cheating but the dealer had rebuked saying that he had been going with the rules the whole time.

"There's no way in hell that he's been playing fair, he has to have been counting the cards!"

"Yeah, no ones that lucky!"

The dealer tried calmed them down, "No, he's been going at this fair and square the whole time. I've been making sure of it."

"See, I'm just a lucky guy. No cheating required." Naruto really was just a lucky guy when it came to gambling. Now he had quite a bit of money to go on for a few months, and of course now he was able to get a few other gambling places from the other guys at the tables.

And his Shadow Clones dispersed after getting doing their jobs; he now had a publisher for his perverted godfathers books, and he had a few locations to setup shop. The first one had a decent location and it didn't look like it needed too much renovation, while a few others weren't looking good, so he'd more than likely have to settle for the first location.

So now he decided to head back home with his newfound cash and start working on his shop...and an outfit to operate in different from his ANBU uniform.

 _'Maybe I can make something that'll hide my whole head...'_

As he went out the door, a few guys decided to 'catch up' with him, per say; three of them exactly. Naruto had Rukia in the front of him with her stuffed rabbit alongside her snoozing, while he had his cash in a sack tied up on his back.

The men tried to be sneaky about it, but he wasn't an idiot, _'Trying to follow me back to my place, huh? Well, I guess I better deal with these douchebags beforehand...'_

Naruto started to walk into a more isolated part of the Rukongai where there was a forest, away from any houses or the towns.

He was in their sights, but he Shunshined out of sight surprising the thieves.

"What the hell?!"

"Is he a Shinigami?"

"Was that the Flash Step?"

"Don't let your guard down, we can take him."

Meanwhile the men were trying to keep an eye out for him, Naruto had set Rukia down away from the fight along with his money, next to a tree, and decided to spank them around.

 _ **'Careful not to turn them into bloody smears across the ground.'**_

 _'Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it man. Just gonna teach them a lesson about screwin' around with a teen dad who actually gambled and won in fair way.'_

 _ **'More like you just lucked out on it.'**_

 _'Whatever.'_

Naruto came from behind and walked casually towards the men with a smirk on his face, "So, nice weather we're having here, eh?" He decided to play it cool and sarcastically with them.

"You! You stole a lot of money from us!"

"And we're here to collect! Don't think we won't come for your kid either!"

Naruto's smirk dropped down into a very pissed off frown, "You know...I was gonna let you guys off with a little smacking around. But you guys just lost your freebie today."

One man charged out Naruto with fist cocked back ready to rock forward, and he would have hit Naruto, but the blonde ninja simply slapped the fist away and took a knee to the guy's gut leaving him keeling over and spitting up saliva and going out cold.

The other two came at him at the same time with one pulling a knife out and another bare fisted. He rolled his visible eye at this and pulled out a kunai to catch it, while he simply kicked the other guy in his face knocking his teeth out and putting him down on the ground hard.

The man tried in vain to overpower Naruto, but he was getting nowhere with that and he yanked back, and yelled out to try again and stab him, but he disappeared from his sight, and suddenly found that he now had a kunai stabbed in his foot. He let out a scream of major pain, but hey, you would too if you had something sharp and heavy stabbed in your foot.

"GYAAAAAAHHHH! YOU BASTARD!"

Then he heard Naruto's voice behind him in his ear, "Hey, you asked for it, so don't complain about having some pain." Naruto casually said as if her were talking about the weather. The man turned around to try and stab Naruto one last time in desperation, but his fist was caught and he found looking into a blood red eye with three tomoe spinning around slowly.

"You're going to forget my face, but you will also never threaten another child ever again for whatever petty reason." Naruto cast a Genjutsu to test out on the still conscious man and made his rounds to the other two men seeing if that would help rid the memory of his face.

Just in case any Shinigami came looking for him. And for a test drive with the Genjustu capability with the Sharingan. _'Can't believe that it's so simple and that freakin' easy. No wonder Kakashi-sensei could use it like nothing.'_

Naruto went back to where he had dropped Rukia and his money off and saw that she was awake now and looking up to him with sleepy eyes, and a little smile he smiled back at her and she laughed a little with her arms raised up wanting to be held. "Come here you widdle gurl. Yeah, daddy had to deal with some idiots who tried to snatch up his money and make off like a rich man that I currently am now, but I taught 'em a lesson. Yes I did, yes I did."

Naruto started walking back where Kurama, who he had hoped would tidie up the place as he was going through the Shinigami info, a thought came up in his head.

 _'Hey, should I be concerned about her taking joy in the ultra violence of fighting?'_

 _ **'Probably. Oh, you should probably get ahold of some Sekkiseki while you're out and about. Could come in handy.'**_

 _'What does that stuff do?'_

 _ **'It neutralizes all Spirit Energy around it and negates any attacks made by Shinigami.'**_

 _'Now_ that _I can really use. There was a shop that looked a little shady while I was out and about...they might have some of that stuff.'_

 _ **'Then steal it if he's got any. You**_ **did** _ **say that he looked shady, so he probably got it illegally. Got anything in mind?'**_

 _'I was thinking about a mask that I could wear...I've got a few designs in mind, though prolly only one comes to mind that would go with my eyes.'_

 _ **'Ahhh...**_ **that** _ **design, huh? Well alrighty then, let me know how that works out for ya.'**_

Naruto decided to make a night to at least patrol around some of the less fortunate areas around him.

No need to draw attention where he lived unless necessary.

Naruto went back home and did his usually thing with Kurama dispelling, cleaning the place up, feeding Rukia and putting her to bed as night fell. He made a Shadow Clone to watch over the place just like last night, slipping out of the house and swung by the shady merchants place as he was closing up for the night.

Picking the lock on his door was easy, and moving around the place was easy since the guy was already asleep combo that with the Transparency Jutsu he was just a ghost in the afterlife.

"Ok, let's see what you got buddy." Naruto found a hidden door that went into a room filled with a lot weapons, items and other things, but what caught his attention was the big rock that was about as big as Choji, and had a label on it.

He walked towards it and took the label off the rock bringing it close to his face to get a good look at it, and it said: Sekkiseki. Extremely Rare Stone.

"Score. Though what's this guy pricing it at?" Naruto read the label further and saw the most, ridiculous and fucking overpriced he ever saw in his life.

 _'What the hell?! He wants to charge people this much for a pound of it?! That's straight up fucking theft!'_

 _ **'Actually, it's a pretty reasonable price on the black market considering that 90% of it is actually owned by the Shinigami, and it's extremely rare in the Soul Society. They used it to build that wall surrounding their place and some big tower for prisoners, or something like that. Couldn't remember the name or the whole purpose of it. Though you're one to talk, you're stealing it right now'**_

 _'That's 'cause you told me too, idiot.'_

Kurama just scoffed at his response, _**'I just suggested you steal it, I never told you**_ **to** _ **actually do it. There's a difference.'**_ Naruto's eyebrows were twitching in annoyance and anger at his partner.

He really wanted to smack him upside the head right now.

While he was no fan of the black market, and he didn't want to see some poor sap get ripped off but the merchant, he figured that somehow he could get this hunk of rock back to his place and stashed somewhere secret. He could have more uses for it other than for a mask for his face.

He made a mental note to grab it before the night was up. After taking out a chunk of rock and carving to what he wanted the design to be, he made sure that he could breathe with it on, and that he still had his full vision with it on. He gathered the rest of the attire that he had put together back home as he was getting Rukia ready for bed, and slipped the helmet on his head.

His attire now had him wearing a pair of black pants and gloves, with a white form-fitting shirt underneath. Over this he wore a white, high-collared, long sleeve mantle that split down the lower half and had red flames on the bottom, as well as an black assortment of ten magatama markings appearing on his back; one large one, with a black Rinnegan-like pattern within it, and nine smaller ones arranged in rows of three below it. Around his waist he wears a simple, dark-red belt and on that, he had his shuriken pouch and a medical pouch that contained blood pills, soldiers pills and any other miscellaneous items that he or someone in desperate need could use, and a few scroll pouches attached as well. He had his kunai pouch strapped to his right leg like he usually would, he had the Gunbai strapped to his back, and he had some seal tags concealed on his wrists ready to throw any tools at a moments notice.

Now it came down to the Sekkiseki helmet, he had taken the design, as well as the rest of the attire and blended his dad's Hokage uniform with Obito's war outfit. The helmet was white and had a combination of the Rinnegan and the Sharingan that covered his whole face, as well as a good portion of his sides and the top back of his head. The holes were two of the tomoe in the pattern that let his Dojutsu flare in the night, giving him an out of this world appearance.

Well technically he was out of this world already, but this just made him look like more of a badass, if he did say so himself.

"Now, I'm all good to go. Shinigami...get ready to eat your hearts out. The New Sage of Six Paths has arrived tonight." Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves, out into the Rukongai.

* * *

 _ **Alrighty guys, and that's a new chapter! Let me know what you guys think, as in the next chapter there will be a timeskip later in a few years with some flashbacks. Don't worry it's not yet up to the Hollowfication Incident, the Turn Back the Pendulum arc, so there's still quote a while before it gets to that point.**_

 _ **Also, I have posted two different challenges up on my profile if anyone is interested, and I'm taking the poll of my profile as pretty much the majority has spoken, and Hisana will live in this story, unlike in canon.**_

 _ **So continue to read, review, favorite and follow this story and my others as well. The next update will be my X-Men story followed by Star Wars: Requiem. Enjoy :) !**_


	4. Chapter 3: Time Goes By

Chapter 3: Time Goes By

* * *

-Twelve Years Later; 1872-

* * *

A young girl currently was running through the forests of the Rukongai, and was eager to be the winner of this game. The sky held a setting sun, painting the clouds a mixture of beautiful colors of red, orange and violet. She had until the light left the sky to finish the game.

She was told to look for things that just seemed out of place, but to also look hard and good at it as well.

 _'Look underneath, the underneath.'_

That's what he said when she was old enough for these hunting games. What caught her eye though were the bushes that looked out of place. She was going to charge right for it at first, but then she thought about it for a second.

He would make small little tests to see if she was paying attention to what he said to her and taught her. If she got things wrong, then she usually ended up doing it over again, not because he told her too, which he rarely did, but she wanted to get it right the next time.

She strived to become better.

So she picked up a rock off the ground and threw it straight at the bush, getting a yelp in pain.

"Oww!"

The girl was wide eyed and her mouth hanging open in excitement. She got him after only three tries this time, two less than the last time they did this hunt.

"I found you, dad!"

The person that came out of the bushes was none other than Naruto Uzumaki. The person who had been raising her for the last twelve years, and who had been teaching her self-defense as well.

"Yeah, you got me baby girl. You're getting better at this; it didn't take you as long to find me like the last time." Naruto walked over and bent down to his daughter's level and gave her small kiss on the forehead, he saw that she _still_ carried that stuffed animal around.

"Are you still carrying this rabbit around? I thought you decided to stop that a while ago?" He referred to the little stuffed rabbit that he got for her back when he first arrived. He did his best to make sure that it stayed clean over the years, though the only real time he had to do that was when she was asleep and none the wiser that her precious 'Chappy' was missing from her bed.

"Well~..." She dragged the word on being embarrassed, she saw that kids her age didn't carry stuffed and puffy animals around in public, "...I did, but...I like to carry Chappy with me when no one else is around." She brought it up to Naruto's face and shook Chappy a bit to make it look like he was doing a jig. "She's my best friend!"

Now it's clean white 'fur' was a faded grey, with bits of white showing here and there, along with some stuffing coming out of one of the ears, a missing eye button and some doodling by a pencil giving Chappy a monocle and a top hat.

Naruto chuckled at his daughter's actions. He couldn't be the one to tell her that she had to leave it at home from now on, since she had to learn to grow up. But he was a dad, and he had to make sure she had to leave certain things behind that would hinder her own growth.

"Well, that's fine and all, but Chappy won't be with you all the time in the future."

Rukia looked down in bit of depression, "I know..." Then she picked her face up in renewed enthusiasm, "...hey, are we gonna get to do more of this stuff, like what you did when you were a kid? I wanna become big and strong like you, daddy!" Naruto picked Rukia up and sat her on his shoulder, letting her feet dangle from his neck. They walked back to their home where they had been living for the last twelve years without much incident, and they made some friends in the district and even some that made their way from the lower districts further away from the Seireitei. And a couple even from it.

"Well, sweetheart, it all just depends."

"Depends on what?"

"Well, stuff just depends."

Her face contorted into disappointment, "Aww~ you always say that."

"Don't worry, I'll teach you more as time goes by and when you get older." The time he spent with his daughter was something he enjoyed every moment of his life, he imagined that this is how Iruka-sensei had felt when he was teaching and scolding him. He had told Naruto that he was like his younger brother when he found out that Obito had declared his intentions with him, it had touched him when he said that.

Being a dad wasn't easy, but he had to say that it was fun.

But neither was it easy being the new Sage of Six Paths either. He had healed the grievously ill and the disabled, giving people hope and joy where there was despair and sadness, new housing and sustenance for those who had none at all. Even dealing with some Shinigami who looked down upon the residents of the Rukongai and tried to do whatever it was they wanted with them, whether it be for money, food, entertainment, or whatever detestable reason, and from what he heard no one tried to reprimand them.

He did have a run in with a captain in this time, and while she herself was good, everyone else was just, well...they sucked...

* * *

-Flashback-

* * *

"Well, I do believe that this was a productive night." Naruto stood on a cliff that overlooked a large portion of the Rukongai that reached all the way to the Seireitei's walls, as the morning sun would rise in a couple of hours and he needed to get some sleep. He had healed some terminally ill people in their sleep while he also made some instant houses with his Wood Style. Granted the designs were different from the one he lived in, as he didn't want connections happening and being led back to him.

He felt that he had to give these people a place to live in, rather than living in the dirt.

He decided to make his way to a secluded place in the forest deep enough to get away from any curious eyes.

As he jumped over rooftops and through the trees, he sensed a few people heading right for him.

Shinigami.

They were the only ones who could actually attempt to keep pace with him. He decided to see how strong they were, since they were keeping a small bit of place with him plus he was a little bored.

He jumped down to the forest to make ready for a little fight, and to his surprise the Shinigami weren't the ones he saw that wore the standard uniform. Overall, the uniform resembled a ninja uniform like the ANBU, though lacking any armor plating that they had. It had no visible white undergarments and the sash is dark as opposed to the white. A headpiece covered the bottom part of the face and sometimes the top, but not the eyes; they wore no sandals, but long jika-tabi, and tight bands were on their legs and arms to keep the clothes from moving too much, both of which he assumed for moving silently. And some of them wore black bandanna that covered the entirety of their head, while others didn't, best guess was that it was an optional thing for the attire.

"Stop right there!"

"Don't move, now who are you? And why are you dressed in that strange garb and mask?"

They had their hands on the swords attached to their backs, ready to draw at a moment's notice.

Naruto decided to goad them into a skirmish, "Now I'm sure you guys are just doing your jobs, so why don't you save yourselves the trouble, and just go home before you bite off more than you can chew."

He got the reactions he wanted with their narrowed eyes aggravated voices, this was too easy…

"What?! How dare you say that to us!"

"We're the 1st Division Punishment Force of the Stealth Force!"

"You think you can defeat us?!"

"You're going to eat those words!"

They rushed at him with drawn swords, seeing as they were moving in such a slow fashion with his Sharingan keeping up with their movements, _'So this is how the Uchiha saw opponents in their fights, gotta admit it's pretty impressive, no wonder Sasuke was able to stay up with me our first go-around.'_

He parried one strike after another, disarming and humiliating a few of them with taking their belts off and wrapping them around their eyes and hands, leaving them blind and unable to move, he could've sworn he saw one or two guys with boxers decorated with pink hearts, who knew?

Just a few remained standing, and they gave Naruto a wider berth seeing how a dozen of their comrades went down in such little time, they weren't going to stand a chance, though their confidence was renewed when a new fighter appeared from the air.

Naruto sensed their presence and had substituted in one of the wanna-be ninjas in his spot instead, letting him take the full brunt of the attack. It didn't seem to surprise her as she leapt into a battle stance, ready for whatever he would do, "Well, didn't see that one coming." She said so cheekily, _'I wonder if I can actually create a version of what I just saw…'_

"Well, it seems like I may actually have a challenge after all." Naruto replied.

"It doesn't look like you got much of a workout with these guys."

"No, not particularly, though I have to wonder…will you be able to?"

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

* * *

-Present-

* * *

That night he had played around with her, safe to say she was as good as Bushier Brows-sensei, though he doubted that she could come close to achieving a strength level like the Inner Gates that he did. He doubted even he could survive a kick from full power, Madara just got lucky with Guy already having fought for a good while and losing the chakra cloak.

"So dad, what's for dinner?"

Naruto looked up to Rukia, "Oh, it's your favorite."

Rukia's eyes widened up at that, and she let out a long childish gasp "Ghuaaahh! Woohoo!" She shot her arms up in joy.

He had learned that she had a thing for eggs, cucumbers and rice dumplings, and thanks to a good Shinigami captain friend he made, whom he wasn't going to deny was a genius and _very_ well endowed, she gave him quite a few pointers with cooking. "Yup, Boiled eggs and cucumber ramen with rice dumplings and grilled chicken along with some tangy dipping sauce."

She was drooling a bit at that, she couldn't resist just jumping up to the table and digging right into dinner, he had a clone back home already prepping things for them and tidying up the place.

He had taught her to be clean and to have manners when he himself didn't at that age, but he also taught her the art of pranking…

Her reaction when he told her how he had painted a mountain in just under three hours was priceless, and she practically begged him to teach her with pranking people. She was able to get away with pranking every now and then with him, but most of the time she failed and she fumed when she couldn't one up him, and it was adorable, she looked like a puffed up angry monkey.

But he also ensured that she needed to keep her and his 'abilities' a secret from everyone else due to not wanting any particular prying eyes.

"Baby girl, you remember what I said about our techniques?"

"Mhmm. We can't show them in public, no matter how much people may need our help." She sounded depressed as usual with the explanation, she didn't like that people were unable to do anything for themselves at times but she was glad that the Sage of Six Paths had been doing that, and she made sure to keep a tight lid on that's who her dad was.

"Well since you brought it up, and I've been thinking since then, you've been coming along nicely with your training, and you're getting the hang of things much faster than me or anyone else did back at the academy, soooo...I might be able to start teaching you how to climb up trees."

Rukia was confused at that, she could already climb trees, "But I can already climb trees, well as long as I can grab the branches and it's not too high."

Naruto decided to throw the kicker, "With only your feet…" He could practically feel her jaw dropping at that, then he felt her contort her body to come up over his head and face him upside down, "No way! With only my feet!"

"Mhmm."

"Yes!" She pumped her fist high in the air in victory, "My training pays off with awesome stuff like this coming my way."

"Now, just to let you know, you'll be in a new place that I made just for the next step in your training, and it's also a nice place to unwind and relax, to get away from the public here."

"What is it? Come on tell me! Tell me!"

"I'll do you one better, I won't tell you, buuuut…I'll make it a surprise for you…"

"Awww~, I wanted you to tell me…"

"If you eat your dinner, do your teeth, and go to bed then tomorrow will come sooner than you think."

She crossed her arms and huffed in impatience, "Ok then…"

They finally came back to their home where dinner was already laid out for them, and the clone dispersing after doing its duties. Rukia washed her hands and went to the table set up in the dining room with her dad doing the same, once he sat down they said their usual thing "Itadakimasu!"

And they dug in, he had to thank that woman for teaching him proper cooking since instant ramen all the time would've done her no good for her health. After being here for twelve years, he noticed that he only aged ever so slowly compared to before back home, he suspected that it had something to do with his usual meditating for Sage Mode as he found that he could absorb the Reishi in the environment like the Quincy's that he read up on.

He saw that while twelve years had passed, his body on the other hand, had only aged about a year and a half and she while being twelve still looked like she was half the age, he'd have to wait until more time progressed to see how exactly it worked with them, as it looked like Rukia had finished eating. She really wanted to learn tree climbing that bad…though it seemed like she had something on her mind, "Hey dad."

"Hmm?" He finished slurping some noodles in his mouth, "What is it baby girl?"

"When are you and the pretty Shinigami captain gonna finally get hitched?" That got Naruto to spew his food out in shock at what she said, "Whuuuuh…? Where the heck did that come from?"

"Well, I guess it's because you and her seem pretty friendly and whatnot." She held her head in an arm with a curious look in her eyes.

This was something he had to tread very carefully, otherwise he could ruin her own development with other people, "Well, you see…uhhh…we're just friends right now, and I mean…" He was struggling to find the proper words to say to her, "…w-we're not like the adults that you see around most of the time, I mean, we're just friends dattebayo."

He growled at the fact that he _still_ said that, even after nine years of raising a kid he had that damn verbal tic, and she eventually got one too…

"Oh, ok then, I was just curious that's all." He was glad that was out of the way…for now…

Rukia leapt down from the table and rushed to the bathroom to get ready for her bath and teeth, "I'm gonna jump in the tub and head to bed then, dattebop."

Yup, there it was…he was silently cursing himself at that little thing she picked up. He suspected she replaced the –bayo with –bop like saying Hop like a bunny rabbit, which would stem from her almost always having her Chappy rabbit with her.

"Ok, baby girl." He stood up and got to squaring the kitchen away with his night off. He started having nights off to decrease the likelihood of having to get into a fight every damn time. For twelve years, he had been giving the Shinigami the slip ever since he first had that fight with Yoruichi and the Stealth Force, he had a few run ins with other officers and had come out on top, but one night he had somehow done something utterly amazing, he had subconsciously found a way to activate Kamui through his Rinnegan. He had so many things he could do now with that Jutsu, new fighting techniques, and most of all…new pranks…

He could probably use it to scare the absolute crap out of people with it, just appearing out of nowhere he could just say 'Boo' ever so quietly or ever so loud, and people would shit their pants.

As he finished with the kitchen and had the leftover food disposed of, his thoughts drifted to the woman that had taught him proper cooking etiquette and technique…

* * *

-Twelve Years Ago-

* * *

"Aaaand, finished!" He took a step back to appreciate the hard work he put into the shop's design in the last eight months. The porch was cleared of the garbage and now had a few tables to have a few people, with an awning providing cover from the sunny days ahead, and the rainy weather when it did as such. Overall the color was orange, with red trimming, a white banner that said 'Uzumaki Ramen Opening Soon!' over the main counter that head several swivel stools that were black and had a back as compared to Ichiraku's own stools and he had a metal security shutters made to ensure no one could get in.

Rukia was in the front of him in the sling he had kept in condition, with her little rabbit in her arms playing with it, and by playing she was gnawing on it.

The money from Icha Icha certainly came in pretty big, who knew there were so many perverts in the afterlife?

"Now I just need to get enough raw food to get things going."

Then he heard a feminine voice behind him, "Looks like a nice place you got setup, though you may want to change the name of it, just serving ramen won't bring in enough business for you."

Naruto turned around to say that it was blasphemy to say that ramen alone wouldn't make enough money, "Ramen alone won't make enough money, bah! That's blas…" but he stopped himself as he was now staring at the face of the captain of squad twelve that he read up on: Kirio Hikifune.

She had smile on her face, not one that was like a smartass, but just a casual one just being friendly as one can be, "What? Never met a Shinigami before?" She looked down to see little Rukia still playing with her bunny rabbit, "She's so cute! Is she your baby sister?"

Naruto was actually now able to fully appreciate her appearance, beforehand he had simply glossed over her profile and looked at her techniques and abilities. She was a genius due to creating the Artificial Soul and greatly improving the Gigai that the Shinigami used in the Living World, and she was a captain of a squad in the Gotei.

"U-uh, no she's, actually my daughter."

She looked a little surprised at his answer, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She waved her arms a bit in apology, "I just assumed, I just didn't take you for a married man and all." She not was giving him a small analytical look, "Come to think of it, you look rather young for being a dad and all, ya know." She got right in his face squinting her eyes at him, while he was getting uncomfortable due to the close proximity between them.

She stared at him for what seemed like half an hour until she broke from it and stood back in her casual demeanor from before, "Oh who am I to judge who's old enough to say or do whatever they want?" She stuck her hand out, "Kirio Hikifune, a pleasure to meet you Mr…?"

He was rather nervous at this, he didn't expect to run into a Shinigami captain out in the middle of the Rukongai despite being close to the Seireitei, not wanting her to feel like she was being offended even with her smile being there for the whole thing, "…I-I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki, and no…I'm not a married guy actually." He shook her hands, taking in the soft, warm and friendly feeling that she gave off.

" _ **Better cover up that growing tent of yours."**_

Now, the damn fox told him something, he was feeling his _kunai_ per say getting, well…enlarged…though she seemed ignorant of that and was simply looking at him and Rukia, "Oh so you're not married? That's a little interesting, had a falling out I take it?" Naruto was about to respond, but was quickly silenced by her next words, "Wait, you don't have to answer that, sorry, I just met you and now I'm already asking some major personal questions that I shouldn't be asking. My own curiosity gets the better of me from time to time."

He looked down to see Rukia had stopped playing with the rabbit and was looking up at him, "That's…ok, you don't have to worry about insulting me or anything like that. No, I didn't have a falling out, I actually found her in the streets alone, so I guess me being an orphan and all…well…I'm sure you can guess how things went from there." He looked back to see Kirio had an apologetic look on her face and had a feeling what she was going to say, so he decided to stop her but he found himself and Rukia now being hugged to death by the woman, "You are such a sweet person to do this all on your own! Raising a child, and running a business by yourself is something almost no one would do these days, you have such a big heart!" She had some of those tears per say coming from her eyes like a mood swing on the spot, now she was making things awkward for him out in the public, and he was getting rather uncomfortable now.

"Uhm, thanks…? So, what are you doing outside the Seireitei? If you don't mind me asking, that is?" She suddenly stopped the waterworks as let go him an Rukia letting him breath a bit and relax, "Oh, it's no problem, I was just looking around the place for anything out of the ordinary, and that paintjob caught my eye, I mean you don't see bright orange like that every day. So why the choice in colors?"

"I've always liked orange, so that's why."

She nodded at the answer, "So what all did you have planned for the place?"

"Well Uzumaki Ramen pretty much spells it out for ya."

She crossed her arms and gave him an amused look, "Well alrighty then, looks like we're going to have to expand the menu."

Now he was confused, "Wait, wha…" He was cut off by her once again, as she handed him a piece of paper and he took it without fully knowing what exactly the point was, "Come by the squad twelve barracks later today when you get the chance, just present this to entrance and they'll let you in and give you directions! See ya then! Bye!" She turned around and waved back to the stupefied Naruto. He looked at the slip of paper as it had the kanji for the number twelve and black thistle flower on it, he flipped it over to see her signature on the back, more than likely a seal of approval of sorts that let visitors into the Seireitei.

He looked back up to see that she was now gone from his sight, probably to do whatever it was that she was planning.

* * *

-Present-

* * *

He chuckled at the memory, "Man she really drills cooking into you when she means it." She helped him create a menu that fit with how people ate in the Rukongai and appealed to everyone, or at least the majority, so he ended up changing the name to 'Uzumaki Cuisine' instead.

" _ **That first day was hilarious, you had such a hard time keeping that tent down while trying to get things right to her standards, which were ridiculously high."**_

" _But it was worth it in the end."_

" _ **Then there was that annoying pygmy kid. What the hell was her name? I keep forgetting it…"**_

" _Oh, yeah Hiyori. Kirio's lieutenant, she seemed really irked that her captain invited me over to the barracks that day, she really wanted to try and kick my ass."_

" _ **I looked her up when we first arrived, and yet she continues to be nothing more than some name I hardly remember, nor care for."**_

* * *

-Flashback-

* * *

After that little interaction he had outside his future shop, he decided to actually take Kirio up on that indirect offer and made his way over to the Seireitei. He presented the slip of paper to the giant gatekeeper who still wasn't close enough to be Gamabunta size and he was let in through a door that was part of the gate, and was given directions to squad twelve's neck of the woods.

He walked for about an hour or so as Rukia slept in the sling, he finally found the place. The front gate had the kanji for twelve on the walls next to it with large brown doors leading into the place, he knocked on the door hoping that someone would answer.

"Hello? I got a paper giving me access to this place for the day. Is someone gonna answer the damn door?" He started to get annoyed after the first few minutes, then he was going to start banging on the door until it swung open and a pair of feet almost hit him square in the face, but his instincts had him dodge the slow kick with a rather bored and annoyed expression on his face.

The voice of shock and anger was right behind him, "What the hell!? How did you dodge that!? And who the hell are you!?" He looked to see that he was dealing with a pygmy of a Shinigami; she was a very short, brown eyed, blonde-haired girl who wore her hair fairly long and hung down done up pigtails. He got a look at her face and saw that she had freckles under each eye and had an overly long fang protruding from the upper left side of her mouth.

"Name's Naruto ya damn pygmy, your capn invited me over for a bit. You really need to watch it when you're kicking people. You coulda hit my daughter, you idiot." He also noticed that she had a badge of the squad's number and insignia, this was Kirio's lieutenant, so she should've known better than to dive right into an attack on him.

"Don't call me a pygmy or an idiot, you fishcake jackass! And what the hell's with calling yourself a dad? You too damn young!"

"And you're too damn young to be in the military swinging a sword around, you'd probably chop your own head off instead of an enemy! And it means maelstrom dammit, that joke is years old!"

The two were about to almost get into it, or rather she was since Naruto knew better than to get into a fight with Rukia with him, until he heard Kirio's voice from the doors, "Hiyori!"

She turned to stand full attention at her captain's raising voice, "Hiyori, you're a lieutenant of the Gotei 13. Is this the manner in which we treat our guests?"

She looked down a bit, "No ma'am. It's not…" She still wanted to kick the whiskered retard's ass for calling her a pygmy though!

"What the hell's going on here?" A new voice piped up among them, Naruto recognized one of the men as Shinji Hirako, the gopher dude captain of squad five, the other man he didn't and assumed that he was his lieutenant.

Hiyori looked over and gave him the stink eye, "None of your damn business Shinji! Don't you have other crap to be doing?"

He just smiled at the fact that he was already getting under her skin, "Uhhh, I think I do, but it can wait."

"Don't say that!"

"Uhhh, say what?"

"Uhhh! That, don't say that dammit!"

"Uhh why not?" That's when he found a pair of feet planted right in his face, and his body now flying into the wall. They both slung insulting names and, had a catfight basically while the three others simply looked on in pity at a man acting like a kid, fighting with a kid…

Kirio sighed, "These two get into a fist fight almost every time." She walked over to the two fighting and began to beat them both over the head. "Stop this right now, both of you!"

The man that had accompanied Shinji looked to Naruto and finally spoke, "I'm terribly sorry for this, the captain can be…odd, at times. I'm the lieutenant of squad five, Sosuke Aizen." He said in a friendly manner, "And my captain is Shinji Hirako, he is usually more professional than this, but…he tends to be immature at times."

"Huh, well that's…interesting…" Something about this guy felt, well off for lack of a better term.

Kirio had finally gotten the two away from one another, both sporting large throbbing knots on their heads, "Got it all out of your systems now?" She held a look of disappointment and assertion over Shinji and Hiyori.

Both of them nodded in response.

"Uh-huh."

"Uh-huh."

Kirio's eyebrow twitched a bit, then an aura of anger slowly came over them with flames in the background showing off her anger at them. Naruto made a mental note on that he shouldn't piss her off, if this was just mild annoyance.

"'Uh-huh', is that the response I should be hearing?"

"Yes ma'am/captain Hikifune!"

The flames died down and Kirio was back to her cheery personality, "Good! Shinji I'm sure you wanted to talk about the investigation but it'll have to be some other time, Hiyori, you're going to help me out a bit." She turned to Naruto with enthusiasm, "Glad to see that you came! Come on in, and we'll figure out what'll be good for the menu." She took him by the arm and dragged him inside to the barracks with Hiyori just walking behind them.

* * *

-Present-

* * *

He figured she looked up to Kirio like a mother other than just as her captain, so he didn't mind that crap he got from her…too much, he did occasionally tease her that he and Kirio were secretly lovers at first sight, that got her slack jawed and red as a tomato with steam coming from her ears and nose. She really wanted to rage out on him, and carve his face up, though Kirio kept her in check at times, she went along with his jokes oddly enough, even then she responded with either painful pinches or a knock on the head.

" _ **Why don't you two just have sex, and get it over with**_ **?** _ **She obviously has a thing for you."**_

" _I'm too young for her."_

" _ **As I recall she said something about age not really mattering with whatever people do. Face it, she's into you, and has been for a good while at that."**_

Naruto knew he was making a point, he himself had been chasing Sakura for the better part of his life and Hinata had been stalking him for hers but he never acted on the confession she made in front of him, back when Pain invaded, it wasn't due to forgetting, well partially but, he just didn't see her in that sort of way. So now the fox was trying to set him up, well sort of, with Kirio who he had to admit, was one of the kindest and cheery individuals he had ever met. She was nice and compassionate, but she was also firm and harsh when she needed to be. He did admit she was someone that you could only get lucky with.

" _Whatever, I gotta get things ready for tomorrow."_

Naruto continued to put things away and wash the dishes, though there was still that man…Sosuke Aizen, something was off the moment he met him…his voice for one thing was rather baritone that contradicted his appearance and mannerism that he had shown at first, and then of course the bad juju vibe he got from the man. He'd be careful to watch out for him and whatever he did.

He finished up and got things ready for breakfast in the morning, and walked back to see Rukia finishing up with her bath with a towel wrapped up around herself and shivering, "You know you used to wait for me to help you out with your bath."

"But I gotta hurry if I'm gonna be able to get to bed, and get ready for tomorrow morning's training."

He began to help dry Rukia off and carried her to her room, "Well, tomorrow will come soon if you're patient. That's one of the key aspects for your training and it's a virtue of life. I used to be the same way and I had no choice to be patient within my life in order to get stronger."

Rukia stayed silent until a thought popped up in her head, "I wish I could change time up and just make tomorrow come now."

' _ **Hah, oh boy, if only she knew the truth…'**_

' _Which probably wouldn't hurt for a bedtime story.'_

"Hey baby girl, you want to hear about the time I went back in time and met your grandpa?"

Rukia's eyes shot up in shock and excitement, and her smile could've split her face open, "No way! Did you really?! Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

He chuckled at that, "Ok well you see, it all started when a man named Mukude escaped from prison…"

* * *

-One Bedtime Story and Teeth Brushing Later-

* * *

Naruto finished his story as Rukia was now fast asleep with her Chappy clung tightly to her body, and snoozing like a baby.

He left her room while turning her night light on, one that Kirio had given to him for Rukia since he disliked leaving a burning candle on instead, worrying that it would get knock over and start a fire.

He himself got all set for bed and went to sleep with his own thoughts, and had things planned out for the large project he had been working on for the last year. Though some of his thoughts went back to that rainy day, he had heard that several Rukongai citizens were being killed by a Shinigami for no reason, so he had tracked him down in the daytime and hopeful put him down, however what he found was a very interesting scene.

* * *

-Flashback-

* * *

He had seen some of the bodies, and the aftermath of the carnage, even thought it was broad daylight, the dark clouds and the rainy weather had made things dark enough to move around without attracting attention, there some survivors that he had healed and taken to safety but he couldn't save some of them.

He left Rukia back at the house with a clone to watch over her, he finally tracked down the foul smell of death that permeated from the deaths and he saw five individuals. He saw the Head Captain and another captain that he recognized as Ginrei Kuchiki, the captain of squad six; at their side were two other Shinigami that had two long boxes holding something he wagered, and the fifth individual was were all the negativity was radiating from. He wore what was left of a muzzle around the mid-part of his face, a torn shihaksho that covered only the waist down and some bandages around his stomach, a long red scarf around his neck, large wooden restraints that were broken, a necklace with some ornate piece holding it together, and his hair was parted to his right side with the crimson dye on the left side of his head that looked rather torn up.

"Well, well…what brings you two senior citizens out in the rain? Let me guess…did you come to kneel down before my power?" He said in an arrogant and cocky manner.

Neither Yamamoto or Ginrei say anything to the man, if anything the latter of the two looked sad and disappointed towards the crazed man.

"Apparently, that's not the reason."

Ginrei took a step forward, "Koga…weren't you always planning to use your power to help make your ideals come true?"

Naruto looked on as he was trying to convince him to stand down, as he understood now. He remembered back to the dossiers' that he stole and now recognized the crazed man as Koga Kuchiki, _'He's trying to dissuade him…but it won't work…'_ He had seen that look in the eye all too well, he met many people consumed by their own power, just as Sasuke was until he and the Uchiha clashed for the final time.

Koga just looked as if he had been insulted, "Ideals? Don't make me laugh…there are no ideals in this world." He began to circle the group, "We're all left with only one thing…the despair of not being able to make those ideals come true. But…I've now discovered that despair release my true power. Despair is the force that breaks my shackles and frees my heart to do as it truly wishes!"

Ginrei was shocked that this was what came from this boy, who he knew was a good man, but simply undisciplined in such things, "Koga…you are greatly misguided."

"Those with power are the ones who get to impose order on this world! And in the midst of chaos, that order prevails, right or wrong! If that power is victorious. Even if it's dark, black will become the color of what's right! Even the Sage of Six Paths that the people of the Rukongai revere so diligently has power that has allowed him to escape the Gotei for the past year. Whatever power he has, has given him victory over you all! My power will allow me to impose my order, and over him as well!"

Ginrei shook his head, "Koga..."

Yamamoto stepped forward to talk now, "You're wasting your time, Ginrei…this man is completely consumed by power! He can no longer hear what you're saying!"

The old man transformed his cane into his Zanpakutō, and drew his sword ready to do battle. Naruto saw that Ginrei, after hesitating for a moment, drew his own blade as well steeling his resolve to stop Koga.

Koga on the other hand, just smiled wickedly at this, "How interesting! I always hoped I'd have to the chance to cut the two of you down to size, one day!" He pointed his sword right at the men. Naruto wasn't quite sure if he should step in to stop this man, in the case that he was able to back up his claim to be able to take them on, but he also wagered that he would end up in a fight with the two captains and end up doing more damage to them than Koga could, if he could.

Koga dove straight at Ginrei who blocked his strike, "Tell me, Ginrei, do you plan to close off your mind again in order to fight me this time? I'll let you know now that you won't be able to use all of your strength that way!"

He kicked Ginrei off to the side, thinking he was down and he ran right at Yamamoto, already prepared for his strike. Naruto was curious as to why they needed to close their minds off to Koga, _'Hey, Kurama, can you look up what this Koga guy can do again for me? I left a clone back home for you to act through.'_

' _ **Yeah, just give me a second…ok where's the laptop…ah, got it. Ok, Koga Kuchiki: 3**_ _ **rd**_ _ **Seat of Squad Six of the Gotei 13, he's the old Kuchiki man's son-in-law and husband to Kayoko Kuchiki, who now apparently has bad taste in men…'**_

' _Important stuff, is more like what I needed.'_

' _ **I was getting to that, his Zanpakutō Muramasa, apparently has the ability to enter the Shinigami's inner world and control their Zanpakutō spirit, enabling him full control over it. That's why they're closing their minds off, to nullify the sword's effect, it's no different from what the Sharingan and the Rinnegan can do, thought main difference is they can't stop the Dojutsu, but this they can. But it makes them unable to use their own Zanpakutō abilities.'**_

He broke from the conversation as he heard Ginrei's voice, "Bakudo Four: Hainawa!" He shot a string of yellow binding energy towards Koga's left hand, forcing him to retreat from Yamamoto. Ginrei stood up, "Have you forgotten, Koga? I know the extent of your powers better than anyone else in the Soul Society."

"Damn you all…!" Koga brought his sword up, "Whisper…"

Everyone tensed up from Koga about to release his Zanpakutō, but it seemed that luck smiled on them today… "…Muramasa!" but nothing happened, no burst of energy, no Spiritual Pressure, nothing, like a faulty bomb that never went off. Koga looked annoyed that this happened, he brought his sword up a bit to shot at it with a quizzical look, "What's the matter with you? I command you to appear! I am your master, and I order you to release!" He began to shake his weapon in anger, "Muramasa! I know you can hear me! You're my sword, and you must do as I say!"

Ginrei spoke over to Yamamoto and the other Shinigami, "Something's gone wrong with Koga's powers! We have to strike! At once!"

"Yes." Yamamoto nodded in agreement, they would more than likely only have one chance to stop Koga. The accompanying Shinigami sat the crates down that had what Naruto notice as sealing tags, something he didn't think they would employ into battle, but they looked desperate enough to use them against Koga. The boxes burst into what looked like flames, but were actually dense Spirit Particles that gave the appearance of flames, to reveal two javelin spears in each box.

' _The sealing objects? Not something I would've used.'_

Both captain grasped ahold of the javelins, and set into a throwing stance.

"When you're ready, Ginrei."

"Right."

Yamamoto threw the first javelin right at the still pulsating Kido that Ginrei hit him with first, and it connected to the javelin rendering Koga's left arm immobile, it finally came to Naruto that Ginrei didn't use that Kido just to get him away from his comrade, but to set this up, _'Now it makes sense, they're meant to immobilize him, not do the sealing. Or is it still part of the seal itself?'_

Ginrei threw his own javelin, and while it failed to bind Koga's other arm, he swung at it, which chipped the end of his blade off shocking the insane Kuchiki, leaving him wide open. The captains threw the other javelins connecting to his other limbs binding him even further, he was lifted into the air by the Kido and he tried to break free from his restraints, but was unable to do so. Ginrei ran towards the javelin that didn't connect and threw it at Koga's sword arm, completing the binding.

"Good."

Yamamoto no held his hands in a certain seal that began to the sealing process, "Shiso…keppu!" The Kido began to grow brighter, and brighter as it started to circle Koga as he screamed out in terror. Ginrei looked on with sad eyes, "Forgive me…" as he closed them, Koga's body began to be enveloped by a black cloud with chains encircling it.

"Muramasa!"

As it stopped spreading, a large black coffin now entombed Koga with the javelins now piercing it, sealing away the crazed man. Naruto looked on as it was an impressive seal, but he saw a small amount of his energy leak out before finally locking away.

He saw that Ginrei had shed a single tear before he disappeared back home…

* * *

-Present-

Not liking how that ended, he tried to forget it, but he couldn't. "I get the feeling that somehow, that crap's gonna come back to bite us in the ass." He finally put his thoughts away and went to sleep for tomorrow.

* * *

-Morning-

* * *

Naruto was having a nice dream, a very nice dream filled with ramen and a certain purple haired Shinigami that had had to admit he had taken a liking too. But that was all cut down when he felt a large amount of pain on top of his stomach and aloud voice, "WAKE UP DATTEBOP! IT'S MORNING AND TIME FOR TRAINING!"

Rukia got up a little early, and noticed that her dad wasn't up yet. Now she knew that she had to be patient with things since her dad had told her to do so, but today she was gonna start with tree climbing! Something she knew her dad only been able to start when he was twelve and now so was she! She tip-toed quietly around the house to see that he left his door wide open, and a devious thought came to mind.

She ran towards her dad and jumped high into the air, with her knees pointing down right at him, and she yelled out. Naruto gasped in pain as he felt his guts begin to compress from his daughter's full weight on his body, now one could say that he should be used to taking deadly techniques to his body almost on a daily basis, he did at one point have a massive claw from a demon in a box skewer him and someone else while in prison…but this was something else entirely as he now had such an amount of pain let loose on his body that he actually passed out.

Rukia hoped that this would've woken her dad up, but it seemed to do it for a second, and then he passed out. "Uhm, daddy? Are you awake?" She picked his head up from the side to see how he looked, which she now was really nervous thinking she was gonna get in trouble, "OH NO! YOU GOT GOOGILY SWIRLY EYES NOW! I'M SUPER DUPER SORRY DADDY!"

After some shaking, and a small talk later, the father-daughter duo had their breakfast and got everything they needed for today and left the house for the trek, "Now baby girl, I want you to remember this. Never, ever, show this place to anyone, no matter what. Do you understand me?"

Rukia nodded, "Mhmm, I understand. But what's so special about this place where we're going?"

"I'll make it a surprise for you. Trust me, you'll love it."

He could hear Rukia mumbling to herself about what kind of surprise it would be, with it being a cross between a giant bunny rabbit and pink waterfalls…well she wasn't off with the waterfall part.

They travelled for a while towards a mountain where a small cabin was setup next to the rock itself, it wasn't anything special.

"Hey, daddy, what's up with this place? It doesn't look special dattebop."

"Now don't judge things just from their looks, remember what I've told you before? 'Look underneath, the underneath', something that my own teacher taught me. Don't be fooled by appearances."

The two of them had walked right inside the door as there was no lock on the door, but what he made sure to do was throw up a barrier between the interior and exterior of the cabin, it would act as a detection system if by some small chance someone found their way inside, and it held a Genjutsu to lay over the place. He had learned after about four painstaking years to use his eye's Genjutsu abilities to throw up illusions since just using them to see and utilize other Jutsu would only get him so far.

They walked right inside where Rukia just looked confused, the cabin didn't have anything other than a table some chairs, a fire pit, a couch, and a bookcase. She heard her dad speak up, "Ok, close your eyes and cover them…and no peaking."

"Ok." She closed her eyes and covered them up with her hands, while she heard something moving across the floor something her dad was doing, then she felt her body being picked up into his arms and carried down stairs. The more they went down, she began to hear water falling down, she smelt fresh grass and could hear crickets chirping, when the sounds got loud as can be, her dad put her down and was right behind with his own hands and she could feel his breath on her hair.

"Ok, put your hands down, and you can open your eyes now."

She put her own hands down and opened her eyes, only to see her dad's hands, but then he dropped them and she was in complete awe of where they were.

A massive cavern that held some sort of bright lights at the top, a large lake that went around almost the entire place save for patches of ground here and there with trees dotted throughout the place, a great waterfall that poured water down into the lake. She saw that an area had been made specifically for eating and resting, with several other strange items off to the side.

"WHOAH! THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!" She raised her arms in trying to make some sort of scale of it.

"I thought you might like it. I've been putting this place together for about two years, it's a training ground that I made for you to practice and train in for your Jutsu and anything else." He tried to base it after the place underneath the hill in the Seireitei as best he could, but he wasn't too much of a fan of how it looked, he added in a waterfall with his Water Style, trees and grass with Wood Style, and made rock formations with Earth Style. The biggest pain in the ass that he had to deal with was trying to find a way to light the place up so it wasn't perpetual darkness.

He was able to create a natural source of light with these vines that he found one night out on patrol, amazingly they still lit up even when he cut them up. So seeing as this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, he took as much of the vines that he could and nurtured the plants to grow throughout the top of the cavern, the waterfall and the lake would reflect the light around the place giving it a bright outlook.

Rukia was already excited jumping up and down, she was ready for the next step in her training. "So when do we get to start with tree climbing!"

"We'll get right to it, now that lake isn't as deep as you might think. It's about three feet deep and because it's so clear you can see anything and everything in it, I made sure that if you fall from the tree then you won't get hurt." He walked over to the chest that was closed up next to the resting area, he opened it up and now had a kunai in hand. Rukia walked up behind him and he placed it right in her hand, "Now your aim, precision and handling of kunai and shurkien are good but it's still at academy level, you'll learn more when you get older and more experience when we spar, but right now, that kunai will be your marker. Before you fall, slash at the trunk to see how high you got, and that will give an idea to how far you've gotten." He turned to the tree in the lake next to them and pointed to it, "That tree will be your goal, it's tall enough for you to get high in the air, but not enough to do any damage to you when you fall. When it comes to tree climbing you need to have precise control over your chakra, and this exercise will help you greatly. You need to transfer your chakra to the bottom of your feet and you need to keep it there the entire time, and you need to hold it for as long as possible. If you use to little chakra, then you won't even stick to the tree; use too much, and you'll bounce right off. Here, I'll show you."

Naruto made two Shadow Clones and they ran towards too separate trees, while he himself ran towards another, one clone ran up and bounced off after making an indention on the trunk, while the other one just slipped and fell, and the original ran right up perfectly to the top. "This is what the results look like! Make sure to keep your chakra under control the entire time, otherwise you'll end up getting these same results! You understand baby girl!"

Rukia raised her hand and gave thumbs up, "Got it dattebop!"

Naruto leapt down from the tree and walked over to where their stuff was at, and sat down, while Rukia went down to the water and waded through it towards the tree to begin.

Naruto looked on as she tried to get a feel for her chakra and saw that she was putting as much chakra as she could to her feet, he had been training her prior with feeling for and channeling her chakra throughout her body to different parts, and this was the next logical step. After he'd put her through water walking since she already knew how to swim, and he'd help her with the regiment that Kakashi-sensei and Pervy Sage had put him through after going through what Iruka-sensei had taught him, or at least what he could remember when he was awake in classes.

"Yeah, these will be the good times for her. Being innocent and unknowing of what really happens in the world."

" _ **Eventually she will start to want to grow out of your shadow. If anything while she likes your stories, she'll feel like she can't compare to you. She'll want to try and make her own way, and the only logical thing to do would be to go join the Gotei."**_

" _I know, but I want to try and teach her as much as I can before she does. If I hadn't picked her up from the streets when I first met her, and she joined, they'd more than likely mold her into something that they'd think would be suitable for the future, when all they do is make things stagnant."_

" _ **The Quincies and the Bounts. It seems to me that they tend to just get rid of the races due to convenience of not wanting to deal with so much crap, rather than take as much time as they can to resolve the issues for a better solution. They could have taken the Bounts in, but then they'd have to admit to creating them, and with the Quincies they could have worked a system out with them fighting alongside one another, but instead they decided to shoulder the Hollow issues all on their own, claiming that having Quincies would do nothing but kill everyone."**_

" _I have a feeling that now she won't be so malleable to them and their ideals, she'll know that many of the things they do is wrong, and that she'll want to try and change things from the inside…"_

"… _ **while you work on the outside, not a bad idea…"**_

" _I hope that she'll never have to deal with the same crap I did, and her abonnement by whoever did the deed."_

" _ **Well, how would you react to meeting the person who abandoned you? Wait, scratch that, you already knocked the wind out of your dad, and you hugged your mom to death."**_

" _That was because I had no idea about how things went…"_

" _ **And she doesn't?"**_

"… _point taken…"_

" _ **I'm sure you two will cross that bridge when you get to it."**_

" _Hopefully she won't go full on rage. But for now, I'm gonna focus on what's right in front of me."_

He had been conversing with his longtime friend, while Rukia had been trying to get up the tree, and he didn't even see that she had gotten at least seven feet up the thirteen footer tree trunk. She fell a few times and marked her height before falling into the water, and continued to keep going, _'Yeah…these are the good times for her right now…'_

* * *

-Of Things to Come…-

Kisuke was down on the ground and out of breath, as he felt his opponents foot on his chest, ensuring that he wouldn't move. His Zanpakutō was away from him, as he quickly discovered that this Sage of Six Paths had the ability to sever his connection with his sword and bring his own power to half, it was those eyes…those mismatched eyes that glowed in the dark and stared down at him like a child fighting a professional hand-to-hand combat specialist. He should have taken more precautions since he was able to blitz Yoruichi and make the Stealth Force out to be small time hired swords.

"So have we decided to sit down for a while?" He sounded like he expected him to say yes, which of course…

"Well, considering that you cut my power in half, and I can't particularly move at the moment, then I would have to say yes." He tried to sound a little sarcastic, but he was annoyed too, he couldn't deny that.

"Bit off more than you could chew then huh? Well, no worries, since I'm not going to kill you or anything like that for trying to hunt me down for the last couple of days, so, let's talk about why you do what it is you do, Mr Confinement Head…"

* * *

"Hey dad, today's mine and Renji's first day!" Rukia was in the female student uniform of Shin'o Academy, the place where the future members of the Gotei 13, Stealth Force and the Kido Corps went to train and study.

Naruto walked outside to see that she had already grabbed her Zanpakuto and pack that held her clothes and books, she had grown much from before in the first couple of decades that he had raised her she now stood at 5 feet exact compared to when she was just a little kid at 3"2'. Her chakra had actually expanded her original growth rate as well as the rest of her body, and her mind.

He had taught her to meditate to concentrate and focus, to clear her mind, and it had worked wonders when he had managed to steal an Asauchi sword giving her an edge ahead of the other students to learn her Zanpakuto's name beforehand.

"Do well and work hard baby girl."

"Daaad, I'm not a baby girl anymore…" She groaned at the name he had for her over the years.

He chuckled, "I know, I know, but to me, you'll always be my daughter, _my_ baby girl." He hugged her and she reciprocated it, and while he let go, she didn't. "I'll miss you while I'm there."

"I know, but you know you can always come visit me when you get the chance."

"It's just, you taught me everything about so much, with Jutsu, self-defense, Ninshu and how to live life, and how things should. And I want to change things for the better, like what you've been doing all these years, and this is the way to do things from the inside…but what if what I'm doing will be for nothing?" Doubt was now in her head, something that he didn't like, so he had to help ease that doubt, "Baby girl, the road to a better future is hard and there will be many obstacles in your way. There will be struggle and many other things that you may encounter, and I've done everything in my power and knowledge to help you as best I could and guide you. But now there will be times where _you_ need to figure things out on your own, I'm not gonna be there to hold your hand and aid, but I will be watching out."

Rukia nodded at his words, and she knew he was right. The reality of things was something she became aware of as she grew up, and he taught her the way of things, and how they could be changed for the better, she let go of her dad, her guardian angel to start things on her own, but she felt his hand on her shoulder for one last time, "Rukia no matter what they teach you or try to drill into your head about philosophy and the way to fight and live, they will try to mold you into a soldier that they believe will be better, but they don't see how things are from the other perspectives of people outside the Seireitei, so matter what; never forget who you are, and what you fight for."

* * *

Rukia had been placed into the advanced class with her friends Renji, Izuru and Momo and while they had their work cut out for them, it was only due to her dad's tutelage and training that she was able to work almost effortlessly with her studies, she had become top of the class and was named a prodigy among their year.

She was told that she if she continued at the same pace she was at, then she'd be able to graduate from the six-year curriculum in just two-and-a-half to three years. She had finished up her history report of the Soul Society that more than likely, would stir some negativity as it in a way showed her views on how they conducted themselves during certain times and made them into hypocrites, she was pulled from her work by a teacher, "Rukia Uzumaki, someone would like to have a word with you in the conference room."

"Uhm…what for? I didn't do something wrong did I?"

"I was just told that someone wished to speak with you. I didn't ask for any details, so I suggest you get a move on, young ma'am." The teacher left her dorm room back into the hallway as her roommate Momo came in next, "What was that about Rukia?"

"Honestly? I have no idea…I hope I didn't piss anyone off, well lately…" She did have a tendency to get into a bit of trouble with other students whether it was because they called her out and tried to pick a fight with her, or she got back at some of the more arrogant students that looked down on those from the Rukongai like herself.

Oh, how she enjoyed the looks on their faces when she hung them by the flag poles by their underwear, filled their showerheads with colored powder that had their faces bright pink and baby blue the rest of the day, and then there were the tie-dyed uniforms that made them the laughing stocks, they tried to accuse her of being the one responsible but they never had any concrete evidence to support it.

"Heh heh heh, I rule…"

She finally came to the conference room and opened the doors to see four individuals, two Shinigami alongside an elderly man with another man that wore kenseikan, but with robes they wore gave their identities dead away to her, _'Nobles? What do they want? I didn't piss anyone off that bad did I?'_

She walked towards the men, as the elderly one began to talk, "Hello, Ms Uzumaki. I represent Lord Byakuya next to me…" He gestured to the man next to him who bowed ever so slighty at the introduction. She noticed that while he looked rather neutral as any high ranking noble, he had slight bit of apprehension in his face. "…and he has an offer for you."

"Ok, I'll bite…what's the offer?" This was not what she expected at all.

"We would like to adopt you into the Kuchiki clan, and in doing so, you would be able to graduate immediately, and you would be placed into a squad of the Gotei 13." This sounded like a good offer, at least to anyone else, she on the other hand was actually offended that this was made to her.

If they knew her last name, then they sure as hell should have known that she had a dad!

"I'm sorry but, I have to decline your offer."

* * *

 _ **Wow, this took forever I had major writers block for this, but I hope that I was able to satisfy everyone, or at least a good majority of you guys with this chapter. I wanted to show how things progressed a little with Naruto's presence in Rukia's life and the father-daughter relationship between them at this time. I will show more moments like the ones already seen here in this chapter in future ones between them, and Rukia's training with Jutsu and the philosophy of Ninshu. Rukia will learn more about her dad's personal stories as time goes by and will want to find a way to step out of his shadow and making a name and goal for herself.**_

 _ **Now the way the Bleach manga ended…well I'm not even gonna talk about that crap, just know that I'm going to be ending things in a different way, so there's that.**_

 _ **Anyways I'm not sure what else I can say about the story for the time being, so please continue to read, review, favorite and follow my stories. Oh, big announcement concerning my Halo-Star Wars story, I will be putting that story on the back burner for a long time as the more I thought about it the grander and too big it became, as I would have to go through more than likely the stories of 4 games, a comic series, an podcast series, a film, and two whole seasons of The Clone Wars, and I decided to do something else in its place: a Halo-Gears of War crossover story series instead.**_

 _ **It would take place in the final year of the Human-Covenant War, and the Gears characters would be post Gears 3, pre Gears 4, and the main story will begin just before Halo: Reach. So continue to enjoy my stories and whatnot, see ya'll next time :) !**_


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